There are those who believe in God and those who love God. Everyone who loves Him, believes in Him, but not everyone who believes in Him, loves Him. This is because God is real. He’s a person with a distinct personality. You’ll often hear people say things like this: “I can’t believe in a God who would…” In other words, they don’t like the God they see in the Bible, and they refuse to follow a god they can’t modify until He comes up to their high standards. One distinguishing fact about people w...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 310
By every appearance, the very thing Paul dreaded was happening. How many times had gangs of angry men surrounded him and dragged him to the police. In one situation after another government officials had conveniently sided with the mob. And here he was again being taken through the streets of Corinth to stand in front of the new Roman proconsul. It all felt horribly familiar. Would he be stripped and beaten publicly and then thrown into a filthy jail cell as he had in Philippi (Ac 16:19-24)? Or ...
Mar 07, 2024•50 min•Ep. 309
When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia they brought with them a financial gift from the church in Philippi. Apparently, a man named Epaphroditus actually carried the money, and then stayed in Corinth for awhile to assist Paul. He was sent home after surviving a life-threatening illness (Php 2:25-30). The effect this gift had on Paul was not to change what he was doing, but to release him to do it more. Luke says, “Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word…” (v5). He had been wo...
Mar 04, 2024•48 min•Ep. 308
Paul was a human being with strengths and weaknesses. He was incredibly brave. At times he seemed fearless in preaching the gospel. As we read through the Book of Acts we’ve often watched him pursued by angry mobs, and he didn’t always escape. On occasion they caught him and stoned or beat him badly. Yet he always seemed to get up and march off to the next city. So it might be hard for us to accept the fact that this great apostle could have moments when he too felt overwhelmed, when the pressur...
Feb 29, 2024•58 min•Ep. 307
The culture around us is changing. What used to be “Jerusalem,” a society whose beliefs and morals were rooted in the Bible is becoming “Athens,” a society which is ignorant of God and the Bible, and looks for help elsewhere. It’s important that we understand this change and recognize where it has occurred, because God speaks to “Jerusalem” one way, but to “Athens” another. When He confronts “Jerusalem,” He speaks very directly, because these are people who know His Word and at some point in the...
Feb 26, 2024•54 min•Ep. 306
Learning is hard work. Anyone who’s gone to school knows that. Using our brains is like exercising a muscle; it grows tired when it’s overworked and weak when it’s left idle. The school system in our country requires us to study until we reach a certain age, and many people will keep on studying for a few years after that in order to get a better job. But sadly, in the minds of some, once they’re through with school, the season for pushing their brains to learn new ideas comes to an end. The ass...
Feb 22, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 305
If you’re just reading through Acts and come across these few verses about Thessalonica, you might be left with the impression the mission there was something of a failure. Paul, Silas and Timothy were only in the city for a short period of time. Some people came to Christ, but it wasn’t long before fierce persecution arose and the missionaries were forced to flee, leaving these new believers on their own. It would be natural to assume that when left alone without the apostles to guide them, and...
Feb 19, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 304
It’s amazing to watch the change that comes over a person when he or she gets married. The focus of life tends to move from “me” to “us,” or at least it should. We can all tell sad stories about situations where that shift in attitude didn’t take place. And then, there’s another drastic change when children come along. The focus of life moves from “us” to “them.” There is now a little person who depends on me for his or her very existence. Making time for “us” now takes special planning. Money I...
Feb 15, 2024•58 min•Ep. 302
Becoming a Christian will change your life, not only your inner spiritual life, but your external, relational life as well. Not only are you joined to Jesus when you believe, but you become joined to His people. This doesn’t mean you stop loving your own natural family, but it does mean you start feeling that same kind of love for those who are your spiritual family. You become committed to them as if they were your own flesh and blood. Jesus actually said that the spiritual bond formed between ...
Feb 12, 2024•56 min•Ep. 301
What do you do when things go wrong, when your best attempt to obey God ends up in a mess? Where do you turn when depression weakens you like a disease? When you’re attacked by the very people who should protect you, when people totally misunderstand what you say and the situation explodes into a crisis? How do you find peace when temptation rises like a fever until you submit? How do you prepare yourself for that dreaded meeting or phone call or doctor’s appointment? How do you live with the so...
Feb 08, 2024•58 min•Ep. 303
Luke says “And setting sail from Troas we had a good run (favorable winds which allowed the ship to sail straight to where they were headed) to Samothrace (about 70 miles north), and then, on the following day, into Neapolis (about the same distance). Neapolis was located on the northeast coast of Macedonia, and served as a harbor for Philippi which was about 10 miles inland. A very important highway ran through Neapolis called the Via Egnatia (Egnatian Way). It was a paved and carefully maintai...
Feb 05, 2024•52 min•Ep. 300
About 20 miles west of Pisidian Antioch, the road on which Paul, Silas and Timothy were traveling intersected with a smaller road which headed north. Initially it seemed right to these missionaries to continue going west into the highly populated coastal region called “Asia” and they may have passed the intersection and kept walking for awhile before stopping and turning around, because Luke says they were “…cut short from speaking the word in Asia by the Holy Spirit.” He doesn’t tell us how thi...
Feb 01, 2024•57 min•Ep. 299
God knows all things, and even before He made the world He knew every person who would come to Him. He knew who would respond when He called us, and He knew we would sin and be damaged, but because He’s God, He knew He could rescue us, heal us and train us until we would fulfill our destiny. There was a very specific reason that God decided to create us: He wanted a huge family of sons and daughters, and He wanted them to become just like His divine Son Jesus. When we repent and believe in Jesus...
Jan 29, 2024•38 min•Ep. 298
We’re watching two estranged portions of a family trying to figure out a way to come together in peace. One side came from a rough, troubled background with no knowledge of the Bible whatsoever. The other was a very disciplined and exclusive group whose parents taught them to memorize Scripture from early childhood. They dressed differently, they ate different kinds of food, they came from different ethnic backgrounds, they spoke different languages at home. In fact, they were so different it’s ...
Jan 25, 2024•47 min•Ep. 297
The Antioch church became the center of outreach to the Gentiles. They had successfully put behind them the issue of fellowship between Jewish believers and Gentile believers, and by this point in time (probably about 15 years after Pentecost) they were aggressively moving forward to evangelize Jews and Gentiles in other regions. They became a “home base” for missionaries who went all over the world. Paul, Barnabas, John Mark, Silas, Titus (Ga 2:1-3), and undoubtedly many more fanned out from th...
Jan 22, 2024•44 min•Ep. 296
Paul didn’t go looking for trouble, but he did expect it (Ac 14:22). He realized a price had to be paid in order to rescue people for God, and he had decided to pay that price, whatever it might be. But the price he paid for preaching in a small Roman military outpost called Lystra turned out to be enormous. He walked over 150 miles from Pisidian Antioch to get to that remote city of about 2,000 people. Initially a stunning miracle moved the people to try to worship him, but in the midst of that...
Jan 18, 2024•52 min•Ep. 295
The Old Testament prophets looked forward to a day when God’s Spirit would dwell within His people (Jer 31:31-34; Ezk 36:22-27), and they would become prophets (Joel 2:28-32). When the Messiah arrived, God would enter into a “new covenant” with His people (Jer 31:31). On the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus lifted the cup and said, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood” (Lk 22:20). By this statement He was revealing that His death on the cross would bring thi...
Jan 15, 2024•46 min•Ep. 294
We’re in a section of the Book of Acts where we’re watching Paul and Barnabas move from city to city. They only stay for a matter of weeks or months before they are forced to move on. Yet in each place they leave new believers who’ve been joined together into a spiritual family, who are very aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit among them and who, in the midst of great hostility, possess an almost inexplicable joy. You would think that after the apostles departed these new “babes in Christ” ...
Jan 11, 2024•47 min•Ep. 293
Have you ever watched God work powerfully through someone else, and instead of being happy for that person, you felt frustrated? You wished it could have been you. As those feelings rushed over you, you probably tried to explain to yourself why such things could never happen to you. You may have blamed it on your appearance or intelligence or sinful past or bad decisions made when you were younger. The result was that you convinced yourself to lower your expectations. God would never work that p...
Jan 08, 2024•49 min•Ep. 292
Paul had good news to preach. He announced to this synagogue full of Jews and Gentiles that God had fulfilled His promise to the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) that He would end the power of death. Their greatest longing, and ours, was that they would not remain in the grave, but would come back to life, not just spiritually, but physically. And Paul’s message on that Sabbath morning in Pisidian Antioch was that this wonderful promise was no longer just a hope. For the first time a man had esca...
Jan 04, 2024•48 min•Ep. 291
The Law of Moses makes no provision for deliberate, intentional rebellion. Sins done out of weakness or by accident can be forgiven, but not sins of presumption, sins done in defiance of God’s laws. There was no sacrifice provided for this. A person who sinned with “a high hand” was left to helplessly wait for God’s judgment. Listen: “But the person who does anything defiantly…that one is blaspheming the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people. Because he has despised the Word of ...
Jan 01, 2024•33 min•Ep. 290
As Paul and Barnabas set out from Antioch on their mission, Luke briefly mentions they “also had John (Mark) as their helper.” He didn’t last long. No sooner did they leave the island of Cyprus and head toward the interior of Asia Minor than “…John left them and returned to Jerusalem.” The reason for this isn’t stated, but it’s some sort of failure because Paul’s confidence in him was shaken, and he wouldn’t allow him to accompany them on the next trip (Ac 15:36-40). Yet, this certainly wasn’t t...
Dec 28, 2023•33 min•Ep. 289
The call to send missionaries came during a small gathering of church leaders. Five men, all of whom functioned as prophets and teachers, had set aside time to fast and worship. It appears the purpose for the meeting was to listen to the Lord. It also appears, from the casual way Luke describes it, that this sort of gathering was a normal part of life. He names the men: “Now among the church in Antioch there were both prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, and Lucius the ...
Dec 25, 2023•51 min•Ep. 288
Every human being needs encouragement. Many of us are our own worst critic, so a sincere compliment or word of thanks can be like a “cup of cold water” to someone who’s thirsty. Of course, there are people who are proud, but in most cases, I think, much of that is bluff, or if nothing else the passing of time tends to humble even the best of us. Discouragement, self-hatred and shame become the enemies we wrestle with. So when someone speaks positively to us it can have a powerful impact…so power...
Dec 21, 2023•43 min•Ep. 287
Bad things happen over which we have no control, but we do have control over how we react to those events. We can plummet into despair or turn our hearts to prayer…real, passionate, focused prayer. There’s a disarming realism in this passage. Luke allows us to watch our forefathers and mothers face a tragic, confusing situation. Yet, in spite of their pain, they gathered to pray. They didn’t pull away from each other to lament though, of course, private prayer was a foundational part of every on...
Dec 18, 2023•56 min•Ep. 286
Honoring people who deserve honor is easy. Most of us know people we deeply respect, and showing honor to them flows effortlessly from our hearts. The real challenge comes when we’re asked to honor flawed people, people who don’t live up to our expectations, people who’ve failed to do what they should have done. We ask ourselves, “How can I respect someone who hasn’t earned my respect? How can I love someone who doesn’t love me? How can I admire someone who looks down on me? How can I joyfully g...
Dec 14, 2023•57 min•Ep. 285
This passage describes the missionary challenge in most of the world today: too many converts, too few pastors and teachers. The good news is people are coming to Christ in record numbers, but the bad news is there aren’t nearly enough trained people to take care of them. It’s as though someone went out into a wheat field and cut the ripe wheat, but then left it lying on the ground to spoil. Wheat needs to be bundled together and put into a barn. Cutting it is just the first step in the harvest....
Dec 11, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 284
Peter is under attack. He’s having to defend himself. A sizeable and vocal group within the early church were deeply convinced that faith in Jesus in no way changed their requirement to observe the Law of Moses. They believed the statutes and ordinances in the Torah were meant to be eternal commands and therefore must be kept by anyone who wishes to be saved (Ac 15:1). And they were furious with Peter for two reasons. First of all, he had ritually defiled himself by entering a Gentile home and e...
Dec 07, 2023•50 min•Ep. 283
While praying on a rooftop in Joppa Peter received an amazing vision. God spoke to him three times in that vision, but afterward he had no idea what He’d been trying to tell him. It had remained a puzzling mystery until the moment he stepped into the home of a Roman soldier. As he stood there looking at their faces and feeling God’s presence in the room, he instantly understood. In fact he finally understood something Jesus tried to teach him years earlier. So this was what He meant when He kept...
Dec 04, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 282
Since its founding, the United States has been a predominantly Christian culture. Not that everybody was a good Christian, they weren’t, but by and large people did believe that Jesus is the Savior and the Bible is God’s Word. Obeying His Word was another matter. There was a consensus. We generally agreed on what we should or should not be doing. When opinions are polled today it seems there is still a majority who say they believe these things, though more and more qualifiers are being added. Y...
Nov 30, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 281
