Acts - The Mission, Persecution and Expansion of the Church (Page 2)
The Book of Acts chronicles the empowerment, growth, persecution and expansion of the New Testament church; but the end of the book was not the end of the church! It was only just the beginning! The church has continued to grow and expand ever since the time that it was established by Jesus. We need to realize that the Book of Acts records less than 2% of the overall history of the church from its birth until now. We may be coming to the end of this book in the Bible, but it is only the beginning when it comes to the work of God through His church in this world.
I can identify with Paul here in Acts 20 as he is saying goodbye to the leaders from Ephesus—a place where he had spent at least three years of his life pouring into these brothers and sisters. Paul knew that he could not take the time to see everyone again, but I assume that the emotional turmoil that it would cause would have been equally difficult. So Paul had the Ephesian church leadership come to Miletus to meet with him there. There is a great deal from this passage that could be our focus, but we will spend our time examining Paul’s final encouragement to them.
In Acts 20, Paul continues his travels on his third missionary journey. Very little information is given about these stops in his journey—save for one interesting story about a young man from Troas who fell asleep while the church members were having an all-night discussion with Paul about Scripture. In this study, we focus not…
Paul and the believers in Ephesus were experiencing true repentance and its effects. True repentance always has an effect—on both the life of the one repenting and to all those around that one. This morning, we hope to examine some of these effects of repentance with the goal of challenging ourselves to experience true repentance…
In our study together last week, Paul had just arrived in Ephesus on his third missionary endeavor. As was his custom, Paul began teaching and preaching Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah in the synagogue there in Ephesus. In our study today, we’re going to take some time to note the impact that Paul…
In our previous studies in the Book of Acts, Paul was in the midst of his second missionary journey when he arrived in Corinth and ended up staying for 18 months of fruitful ministry. But now the time had come for Paul to move on to be able to complete this journey and begin anew.…
As we come to the end of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey, we realize that Paul arrived in Corinth physically and emotionally spent—burned out—and he was in desperate need of rejuvenation. That is exactly what he received when he arrived in Corinth. In this study, we will spend some time examining all the ways that Paul received encouragement and instruction during this difficult time and try to apply some of these same principles to our lives as well.
How can we know God’s will for our lives? That is a question that believers have been asking for centuries! It is a question that I grappled with as a teenager; and a question that I still seek answers to today. We never outgrow the need for seeking God’s will. In this study, we find Paul and Barnabas ready to set sail on yet another missionary journey, but conflicted over some of the details of the journey. In spite of human failings, God’s will was accomplished in and through these men.
We have a responsibility to communicate the gospel effectively. That means that we need to use whatever method is most effective whenever we are sharing the gospel. In our text this morning, we will see that the Apostle Paul used at least three methods for communicating the gospel. The Bible relates the responses to the gospel message too. We need to imitate the Bereans in the way we approach the teaching and examination of God’s Word.
We cannot forget that there is immeasurable power behind the message of the Gospel! The same power that was at work in Philippi is the same power that is at work in and through us. There is power in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must be careful not to box God in by our cynicism and lack of faith. Our faith in God rests in the power of the gospel—“for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:17).