All Resources Acts 2:42-47 BIBLICAL COMMENTARY (COMMENTARIO): Acts 2:42-47 (English) Hechos 2:42-47 (Español) (Véase también la nota a continuación) SERMONS Acts 2:37-47 They Devoted Themselves (Donovan) Acts 2:42-47 Glad and Generous Hearts (Anders) Acts 2:42-47 Practicing Resurrection: Justice (Butler) CHILDREN'S SERMONS Acts 2:42-47 Gathering Together (Edstrom) HYMNS Acts 2:42-47 hymns PARA NUESTROS AMIGOS HISPANOPARLANTES Para [...]
Paul exorcises a demon from a slave girl––and end up in prison. An earthquake opened the doors and freed the prisoners. The jailer and his family were converted.
Personally, I’m a little uncomfortable when someone says, “This is what the Lord told me to do.” I’m like Dr. Fred Edgar who, exercising great tact, would say, “I appreciate your offer, and when the Lord confirms this with me, I’ll let you know.”
You've been doing fifteen miles over the limit. You didn't notice, but the officer did. The sinking feeling you experience on this occasion is bad enough, but it's nothing compared to what Paul feels on the occasion of his conversion. A better name would be the Most Frightening Experience of His Life.
Surely, Paul was a caring priest who knew how to comfort the afflicted. But he was also a fiery prophet, who didn't hesitate afflicting the comfortable and challenging the status quo. And that's what he did in Ephesus. He went for the jugular and attacked the dominant force holding sway over the Ephesians.
The Prompter is the person who stands in a little recessed compartment at the front of the stage. He prompts actors if they forget a line. All they have to do is glance down at the prompter, and he'll give them the help they need to play their part. The Spirit is our Prompter.
In our text, there is the assumption of Paul that believers should receive the Holy Spirit "when they became believers." This verse indicates that Paul expected a person to know they had the Holy Spirit upon their conversion to Christ.
In Athens Paul makes his appeal, not to a Jewish audience, but to the most learned, well-educated, sophisticated scholars of the day. Their response is telling: They're cordial. But here's the catch: They have no interest in committing themselves to any higher authority than the gospel of enlightenment.
What might it mean to live our lives like Easter is more than one day of the year . . . to be transformed by the miracle of resurrection every single day. Helping us explore the possibilities is Diana Butler Bass’s book Christianity for the Rest of Us, in which she identifies several “signposts of renewal”
G. Campbell Morgan sums up Paul's message this way, "If you really want to find God, do not degrade yourselves in erecting images of gold and silver. Listen to the deepest fact of your own being; be silent in the presence of the mystery of what you are; and then look out beyond to that unknown God whom I declare to you."