Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

After the apostles had laid hands on the seven men who were to help administer aid to the widows, two of those men come to the forefront as powerful preachers and miracle workers. We have considered the story of Stephen, who face his martyrdom with remarkable courage and grace. The story of Stephen ended with an introduction to Saul of Tarsus and his early persecuting career, but Luke’s main focus...

The early church father Tertullian once famously said that the “blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” This aphorism has been proven to be true in countless ways down throughout the history of the church. And the great Augustine made the same point:  “The earth has been filled with the blood of the martyrs as with seed, and from that seed have sprung the crops of the church. They have as...

We have already looked at the overall theme of Stephen’s speech to the Sanhedrin, which is that God’s presence is not locked in a box somewhere. He is not a freeze-dried god, and not contained or bounded by anything that we might say, do, or think. Wherever God is, that place is holy. Whenever God is in fellowship with someone, that person is holy, that person is a saint. The filthiest dungeon cou...

One of the hallmarks of worldliness is when the curators of museums subvert the legacies of the men they are ostensibly honoring. The Lord Jesus referred to this common pattern when He said that the men who build memorials to deceased prophets are the descendants of the men who murdered the prophets. As the stage is set for the martyrdom of Stephen, we see the very same dynamics in play. 

There is a sense in which we are living in quite an unusual circumstance, in quite an odd set-up. In many ways, our church community has never had it so good. We are a growing, industrious lot, grateful for the blessing of God, and the general disposition of our community is in fact quite a cheerful one. At the same time, and in the same community, there are hardships, difficulties, and significan...

We see in this passage the formation of the Christian diaconate. The noun for deacon is not used here, but the context makes it pretty obvious. There was a daily distribution of food to widows and some inequities in that distribution were causing problems. The Twelve said that they should not leave the diakonia of the Word (v. 4) in order to diakoneo tables (v. 2). The noun form is the word for de...

One of the more remarkable blessings that the presence of the Holy Spirit brings is the ability He gives to believes to suffer scorn gladly. This is a remarkable thing in the moment, but it also serves as a portent of what it is to come. It is a statement in the present and a sign for the future. 

The Founder of the Christian faith, the Lord Jesus, was murdered by the authorities. This is a fact that cannot be emphasized too much. After He ascended into Heaven, the second generation of Christian leaders all found themselves in jail within a matter of just a few weeks. This should tell you something about the nature of the faith we profess. 

We come now to the famous story of Ananias and Sapphira, the moral of which is sometimes thought to be “what happens to chintzy tithers.” But actually, that is not it at all. Many more layers are involved. It is also worth noting that we come across three men named Ananias in the book of Acts. We have this man in our text (Acts 5:1), we have the man who was used to bring Saul of Tarsus into the co...

The God of all creation is, of necessity, the God of all history. It is not possible to separate the two, and any attempts to separate the two will only land us in chaos and confusion. God is God, and that is the end of it. This is how the early Christians thought and prayed, and this is something that we must learn from them. 

The foundation of the Christian church was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and because His execution had been perpetrated by the authorities, this meant that Christianity was established in defiance of the established authorities. And once the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Lord’s disciples, this also meant that the Body of Christ took shape under exactly the same conditions.

Jesus Christ was a murder victim, killed by the ungodly men who ran the ecclesiastical machinery of ancient Jerusalem. They thought that they had dispensed with the Christ threat, but He exploded their plans by coming back from the dead. Now this risen one had predicted that He would come back from the dead, as His enemies well knew (Matt. 27:63). This prediction had been fulfilled, as they also k...

Faith in the power of Christ is not the same thing as faith in the power of faith. In this passage, Peter says explicitly that it was not through their own power or holiness that this remarkable healing was accomplished. Rather it was the power of the risen Christ who did it, using Peter and John as His instrument. 

The evildoers running the Sanhedrin were now confronted with a real problem. The man they had unjustly murdered had come back from the dead—His greatest miracle. He ascended into Heaven and poured out the Holy Spirit on His twelve disciples, who began preaching the resurrection powerfully and performing many wonders and miracles (v. 43). By killing Jesus Christ, the unbelieving Jews only succeeded...

We saw last week that the gift of tongues was a marvelous blessing for those who had ears to hear. For believers, the point was all about the grace of God, and the wonderful works of God. But we also saw that for unbelievers, the reality of gibberish in the streets of Jerusalem was beyond creepy. If they had known the meaning of Scripture, they would have heard ominous music in the soundtrack. The...

In the second chapter of Acts, we have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, resulting in the gift of tongues, a powerful sermon, and a massive in gathering of new believers. As we read about this stupendous gift of tongues, we might have the same reaction that the initial hearers did. What on earth does this mean (v. 12)?

The main action in the second half of this first chapter has to do with the replacement of Judas Iscariot. But along the way, we learn quite a few things about the early days of the apostolic company.