In our reading today, we see the Apostle Paul and various disciples, including Priscilla, Aquila and Silas, preach the Gospel in several important cities on the European continent. These cities include Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth and Ephesus. The City And The Synagogue A major part of Paul’s outreach strategy would be to go first to […]
In the opening verses of Acts 12, the first of the 12 Apostles, James, is martyred for their faithful witness to the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. We have already read in the Book of Acts of Judas Iscariot, a member of the original 12 disciples, kill himself (Acts 1:15-19). We have also seen […]
In Acts 8:1-3, we have the the newly-formed Church scattered from Jerusalem by a great persecution in connection with the stoning of Stephen. He was the first martyr of Christ’s Church. In Acts 7 we have a great sermon of Stephen in which he recounts God’s faithful dealings with His people under the Abrahamic and […]
Our reading today begins with the Holy Spirit coming upon believers on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4. Pentecost was one of the three major agricultural and religious Festivals of the Jewish people. Jesus had been crucified 50 days before on Passover. In addition to the Feasts of Pentecost and Passover, the Jews celebrated […]
In Luke 22:4-6, we read that Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed how he might betray Jesus. It says that from that time on, Judas watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over, when no crowd was present. Well, the opportunity has finally arrived in […]
Our reading today gives us a detailed account of what Jesus was teaching His Apostles in the days leading up to Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion and resurrection. It is a treasure trove of instruction that has great implications on what the Christian life is all about. There is a lot of Jesus’ teaching here that is […]
In yesterday’s blog, I mentioned that God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush as the great “I Am” (Exodus 3:1-14). Moses had asked God what His name was. When God said that He was “I Am Who I Am” (v. 14), He was saying that He was the Self-Existent One. He is the […]
The Gospel of John was the last of the four Gospels to be written (probably around AD 85). It was authored by the Apostle John, who according to church tradition was the only one of the Eleven faithful apostles not to die a martyr’s death. He was a very young man when he began following […]
In our reading today, we have the end of Luke’s Gospel and the beginning of John’s Gospel. All three resurrection appearances in Luke 24 emphasizes that Jesus rose bodily. It was not just a spiritual resurrection. A Spiritual & Earthy Hope In the first resurrection account (Luke 24:1-12), both the women and Peter are eyewitnesses […]
As we have journeyed through the first three Gospels, we have seen that there are many passages that appear in all 3 writings or at least in 2 of them. The common material is sometimes given a unique emphasis to suit the Gospel writer’s purposes for writing his account of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. […]