Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

Peter and John wake up in prison after healing a lame guy with faith yesterday.  They do not know if this day will be their day of crucifixion.  It happened to the last guy that got arrested in Jerusalem.  Here's the good part:  standing with them is the previously lame, then leaping, now STANDING guy. He's there.  There have been three venue changes.  It didn't happen by accident. ...

Buckle in for one of the 'best' verses in the whole book of Acts.   And there is salvation : Yeah! rescue. Hope. In no one else : Exclusive. Not me, not politicians, not athletes, not the powerful or beautiful. For there is no other name under heaven : Inclusive invitation to all the world who call. Given among men : this is a universal, world wide GIFT. By which we MUST be saved : There...

Peter takes an Old Testament verse about the Messiah and quotes it before the Jewish authorities.  But to sharpen his statement about Jesus, Peter starts it with, "This Jesus is...(Then here he quotes Ps 118: 22, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.)" Peter claims directly that JESUS is the one talked about in Psalm 118.  He claims that Jesus is God.  Either H...

The same nasty administration that killed Jesus a few weeks prior, arrests John and Peter.  It must have been terrifying.  I wonder if they said these words, "I wonder if we get crucified tomorrow?" It might have been the scariest arrest of all time. Similarly, we do not know what is going to happen to us today.  We do not know the challenges and temptations ahead.  We do not know how ou...

On Page 14 of my Bible, the Lord tells Abraham that "in him all families of the earth are going to be blessed." Today, in we find out exactly HOW the Lord plans to pull this off. Peter in a speech that will be interrupted by his arrest, pleads with his Jewish audience.  He tells them not to FORGET WHO THEY ARE.  You are SONS OF THE PROPHETS.  Well, what do they have to say about this era...

Who doesn't want some TIMES OF REFRESHING? Nobody.  Who doesn't need it? Nobody. Ironically, this extra-breathing-space comes from being CLOSE. the RELIEF comes by His PRESENCE the recovery is by recognizing the freedom comes by dependence and the refreshing comes by relationship. We live in a tough world. Fallenness and sin and confusion and ignorance and trouble are all around us.   Sp...

Peter gets to the dramatic action-point of his sermon and charges his audience, "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be BLOTTED OUT.  You may ask along with me today, where exactly do these sins go?  Where might I find them? First, know that we are not the first to sin or to be blotted.  David, one of the best sinners of all time, had his sins blotted.  Peter reminds his audi...

Peter doesn't exactly hold back in his next little sermon: Step #1:  You are a KILLER.  You killed Jesus. Denied Him. Delivered Him over to Pilate, who BTW had decided to free Him.  Just to add insult to injury, you wanted a Killer released Barabbas, instead of the Author of Life; the Holy 1, the Righteous 1. Step #2: Get to know this God you killed. Start with this: He is the AUTHOR OF LIFE....

LEAPING is a rare human activity, at least as far as the Bible is concerned.  It is really only mentioned ONCE in the New Testament. It is the response of a lame man healed by Peter in the name of Jesus. LEAPING is also rare in the Old Testament.  Isaiah writes of it prophetically in the context of the response of the people of God to God SHOWING UP in a new way.  Isaiah 35 is all about that idea....

Legs that don't get walked on get weak of muscle and of bone strength.  Ask any astronaut. It is called Wolff's Law in orthopedics.  If a person lame from birth were to suddenly jump up and start leaping around, something would happen:  HE'D BREAK HIS LEGS immediately. Unless...his legs were made STRONG first.  You just have to love scripture, because this is exactly what happens. T...

The Holy Spirit has been poured out upon those who learn, are cut to the heart, repent and believe.  Now what.  What about my stuff?  What about my money?  What happens now? Well, everything changes.  We find the early church not take "vows of poverty", but move toward taking "vows of PROVISION." We find the Holy Spirit move them not towards financial communism, but towards fin...

It is said that an army marches by it's stomach.  What does the newly formed army of God march by?  We find out in one of the most famous passages in the book of Acts.   We find they are DEVOTED early on to four things. There is no expiration date to any of them.  That is, marks of Christian practice STILL TO THIS DAY should be characterized by these principles.  Here they are: 1. Words of Go...

It is a beautiful thing to watch the good Lord call the FAR OFF.  I suppose not too many are perfectly close.  Today we see the Lord call 3000 stubborn, unforgiven, unrepentant, ignorant, refusing souls.  At least, they start out that way. God is surely at work: Revealing what He wants them to know from the Old Testament and the words of Jesus; convicting and cutting their hearts, helping with tur...

Repenting is a NASTY NASTY business. It is painful.  It is humbling. It is scary.  It is humiliating. It is agreeing with God. It is changing my mind. It is resolving to change. It is having faith in the right thing. It is receiving forgiveness. It is agreeing I have sin.  It is agreeing I am in big trouble because I have sin. It is the HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD. The road of CONVICTION leads to t...

Subtitle today is "how does one become a Christian?"  Usually, we hear of faith, belief, receiving, coming, confessing or calling on Jesus.  But today, we find out there is a step BEFORE that. After hearing that the Holy Spirit is predicted from 800 years before;  after walking with Jesus for 40 days after his execution; after being reminded that the big cheese DAVID pointed to Jesus, af...

Are you HARDCORE devout convert?  Are you a super-Jew? If so, then Jesus is your guy.  You killed Him, but you can and should KNOW FOR CERTAIN He is God. How? Well, you are such good Old Testament scholars, that let's use that source.  And David is your hero? Well, he talks about Jesus too. Let me interpret correctly Ps 16 and Ps 110 for you.  And what about the craziness of this loud, fire r...

Devout Jewish Men and Women of Jerusalem KILL JESUS.  So saith Peter.  He says you Jews used the hands of Lawless Men, the Romans to do the dirty work. You killed Jesus.  So pay close attention to who He is.   1. Attested to by God.  If you like God, you should have liked Jesus.  God endorsed Jesus by the miracles. 2. The big one: HE LOOSED the pangs of death.  The Father, who you are such big fan...

The good Lord is POURING out His Spirit. However, the target of this generosity is the very prickly humanity.  He pours on imperfect, uncooperative flesh.  It is a good thing.  Perfect people don't need a Savior. But there is a time limit.  We have during the "last days" to receive it.  The "last days", from a Biblical view have an expiration date of the moment He comes ba...

A group of mockers witnesses the Holy Spirit being POURED FORTH on people.  To explain, Peter goes back 800 YEARS! God told of this long ago.  What are you so surprised at?  Shouldn't you have been waiting and expecting this? Is this the best way to respond to a momentous event in the life of this planet? This pouring is one of liberality, fullness, over-the-topness, to the point of almost wa...

The Holy Spirit is introduced to the planet. Peter says the Person of the Holy Spirit CAN BE KNOWN.  You could ask a good follow up question after meeting His acquaintance such as "What does this mean?" Or, you could instantly MOCK and make a verbal attack against the miracle, the men, or the message.  Some choose to scorn the MEN by accusing them of drunkenness. We find out here that th...

God has gathered in Jerusalem Jews and converts from all over the known world to witness the coming of the Holy Spirit.  He goes to great effort to bring them there.  He goes to great effort to pre-convert them to the truth of the one true God of Israel.   Then, He goes to GREAT EFFORT to TELL US where they are all from.  We would be wise to listen.  They come from 1000 miles to the east, 800 mile...

Two groups of people are present for the Pentecost of the Holy Spirit.  The receivers, who are a group of people including the disciples from 80 miles away in Galilee. Then there are "local" Jews living in Jerusalem.  The Holy Spirit does not yet come upon them. They just get to watch and respond.  Even though, we find out they are DEVOUT men from every nation under heaven.  We get a geo...

Today is our FIRST CONTACT with an amazed, perplexed group of devout Jew's FIRST CONTACT of a group of Galilean Apostles and disciple's FIRST CONTACT with the FIRST CONTACT of the Holy Spirit upon our planet in a new way. We get to hear about the Holy Spirit coming anew and see some of the first reactions of those who were in the firing line of this revelation. It is a day of first impre...

The disciples need a 12th guy.  They know that the Lord knows who it is.  Their problem is how do THEY get the message all the way from heaven to the room they are in. How do they do it?  You'll never guess.  It is DICE.  Spiritual Dice.  They rolled lots.  You just can't not enjoy the Bible.   They believe the prophesy of David from a thousand years before, "Let another take his of...

Why were there 12 disciples originally?  Because Jesus said so. Why were there 11 disciples after the last supper?   Because Judas said so. Why were there 12 disciples after the ascension? Because DAVID, King David of 1000 years before said so! (and the Holy Spirit who wrote through David, of course) We find the negotiations and figuring out of the early church here.  They first search the scriptu...