Update on Acts!

Hi guys...
Sorry it's been a while since the last post. Hope that you are still reading...
Do allow me to update you on what we have looked at so far in 2008:

We started off the New Year, looking at the command that Jesus left the disciples with at the end of Matthew 28:
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
We looked at how we can obey this command confidently, because Jesus has said that he has ALL the authority.

We continued on this theme, looking at the passage in Hebrews 12:1-3. This was an introduction to the rest of the term: there are lots of witnesses who have gone before us, who have proven God to be faithful and stayed faithful to God. We have looked at some of these OT characters in the past year or two and so we have been moving on into the NT to look at the witnesses in the early church.

We began our journey through the book of Acts by focusing on Jesus’ command in Acts 1:8.
“…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
We looked at how the power of the Holy Spirit enables us as Christians to live lives that people often will not see as powerful, but will powerfully show people the truth of the gospel.

We then looked at our first witness of the term over three sessions: Peter.
We looked at how Peter was changed and came to rely on God and how the Holy Spirit enabled him to use his talents in a way that would give glory to God and not himself. Here’s a summary on what we discovered about Peter.

- Before denying Jesus: Peter was proud, fiery, passionate. (His pride/fire was based on himself and what he thought he was capable of)

- After denying Jesus: Peter was discouraged, ashamed, upset. (He meant well, but failed to be what he thought he was able to be)

- After receiving the Holy Spirit: Peter was bold, passionate, wiser. (Jesus showed Peter gentle forgiveness and gave him a job to do. Peter realised he couldn’t do it. The Holy Spirit taught Peter to understand why Jesus had to live and die on earth, opened his mind to the fact that God wanted EVERYONE to know this and gave Peter the power/strength to witness to what he discovered!)

Last week, we had a look at Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-37, to see what we could learn from the early Christians. We will continue to learn from them in the next few weeks!

Well… that’s powerful stuff! If you haven’t read it for yourself, we’ve just got through the first 12 chapters of Acts. We’re going to back track a little bit to look at a couple of other characters before moving on…so you won’t be lost, if you catch up with your reading!