Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
One of the problems that we have as Christians is getting the world to hear what we have to say. Obviously, Paul had the same problem when he stood before this Jewish Sanhedrin. It is the nature of man to reject, ignore and hate any revelation of the one True and...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
I wish I could say that I know exactly what Paul was trying to accomplish when he cried out, “Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.” It could be that he was using the old...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
We all know that Christendom is divided into hundreds and hundreds of denominations, sects and cults. This is one of the problems that true believers have to face: The diversity of opinion within Christendom is one of the excuses that the lost man throws at us when we...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
As I said on Wednesday, there were at least four sects, or groups, among the Jews in Paul’s day. There were the Zealots, who molded their theology into ideas about national revolution. These people were ready to try to overthrow the Roman government and establish the...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
Festering in the background of all Paul’s troubles there in Jerusalem are a couple of nagging questions. First, should Paul have been in this predicament in the first place? As we have said, some people think that all of the predictions that Paul was heading into...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
Some of my earliest memories of television, when I was about ten-years-old, involve the old cartoons. Do you remember how so many of them incorporated classical music? For example, one of them had a number of little cartoon men building a sky-scraper to the music of...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
Have you, in anger, ever called someone a fool? If whether or not you have called someone a “fool” determines your true spiritual condition, will you spend eternity in Heaven or Hell? If there were no other factors involved, but your anger or your hatred,...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
This evening, I would like to try to glean just a few more grapes from this spiritual vine. For the most part they will be merely a handful odds and ends – true gleanings. They revolve around this nameless young man. As Bro. Asmundson mentioned to me yesterday, First...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
I mentioned last week how one thought leads to another and another in my mind. At that time I was talking about “foiled again” and then to using foils in competitive fencing. Not only does one thought lead to another, but so do sermons. Sunday evening’s...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
This letter is an interesting example of basic human nature – basic, self-centered, sinful human nature. I’m forced to smile when I read it, but in fact, I probably shouldn’t. It says what it says, and it doesn’t take a genius or a mind-reader to understand it, but of...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
The city of Jerusalem is named 141 times in the New Testament. Even though about a quarter of those follow Acts 23, only a handful are direct historical/geographical references. In the next two chapters we hear the word “Jerusalem”, but they references TO...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
The New Testament refers to “lawyers” several times, and if we aren’t careful, we might picture those people the way that we picture lawyers today. We need to remember that the lawyers and scribes were the same people in the New Testament. And they were...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
It’s to be expected that, in making this kind of Bible study, one message leads into, or links with, the next. But over the months, I’ve found that messages have linked together in unexpected ways. We have an example of that sort of thing between last Sunday morning...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
One of the problems with this kind of Bible study is remembering to make it as practical as possible. To be very honest, I get so caught up in the details of the research and exposition that sometimes I forget that these messages should attempt to make us better...
Jan 19, 2015 | Acts
Jackie sent several of us an e-mail yesterday with a link to an interesting web-site. It contained some pictures by a British artist with an interesting name: Julian Beever. This young man uses chalk and other materials to produce street and sidewalk art. But what is...
