There are few stories in Holy Scripture as shocking as the death of Ananias and Sapphira. The truth is they lied. Then, almost immediately, God struck them dead. If this were normative, we’d all be in big trouble. But the context of redemptive history grants us a little reprieve.
Signs of strength are evident in the aftermath of the church’s first persecution, and should be ongoing strengths in all of Christ’s churches.
A lot of new things are happening in the book of Acts. A new covenant is being offered by God to mankind, to the Jews first, then to the whole world.
The gospel must challenge sinners with their sin. If people do not see themselves as sinners they will never seek to accept forgiveness from the Savior. The gospel, rightly preached, gives them this chance.
I often warn the church about the greatest heresy in modern Christendom and its worst practitioners. The heresy is the so-called “prosperity gospel” and the practitioners are the televangelists who preach it.
Every time the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, every hearer responds. Some respond with faith, most with unbelief. Some respond with acceptance, most with arrogance.
Acts is a book of activities, detailing the work of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles, and the early church. It is also a book of sermons.
God has invented this means, gathering for worship and Bible study, being filled with the Holy Spirit, with the end in sight of sharing the gospel with the whole world.
In the Gospel of Luke, the author records the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the book of Acts, Luke records the advent of the church.
Luke is the only non-Jewish person God graced with the work of writing Holy Scripture. He wrote one of the four Gospels and the only companion volume known as Acts.
