Reading Plan: Week 1 – The church is born (21st – 25th September)
| Acts 1: 1-11 | The promise and the mission |
| Acts 1:12-26 | The prayer and the mission |
| Acts 2: 1-13 | Promise fulfilled, the mission begins |
| Acts 2: 14-36 | The salvation story |
| Acts 2: 37-47 | God’s people, God’s story |
Sunday 20th Sept – Acts 2: 14-36
The beginning of a 10 week journey over 12 weeks! Be sure to download the reading plan and read with us.
Get the audio from the talks, watch our video reflections on the IMPACT of Acts on their lives, and have a read here for the summary of each Sunday’s talks. So, what were the highlights from yesterday…
- The first witnesses were accused of turning the world upside down (17:6). That’s impact! How might the world inside us and the world around us be turned upside down by the good news of Jesus Christ?
- The Acts of the Apostles is really “The Good News of Jesus Christ Part II”. Peter is challenged as to why he and his friends are speaking in different languages and he replies by telling the story of Jesus (2: 22-24). Every time the apostles are challenged about who they are, and what they do, they point to Jesus. Followers of Jesus never strut. They never point to self – they always point to Jesus. What about us? In our lives and in our actions – do we always point to Jesus?
- Peter had complete confidence in the plan of God. First, as revealed in Scripture. The apostles constantly locate the person of Jesus in the scriptures, and interpret the scriptures through the prism of Jesus. Their scriptures were the Old Testament. When we locate our lives in Jesus, we need to locate his life in the plan of God. This is a lifetime’s work, but it is an act of love.
“Exegesis…is an act of love. It means loving the one who speaks the words enough to want to get the words right. It is respecting the words enough to use every means we have to get the words right. Exegesis is loving God enough to stop and listen carefully.”
Eugene Peterson, in *Theology Today*, April 1999, p.10
- Peter has complete confidence in the plan of the sovereign God over all things, whilst being absolutely sure that we are responsible for turning to him or rejecting Him. This much our minds can never truly grasp, but the twin truths of God’s sovereignty and human free will run throughout scripture. Ask yourself – do you believe that God knows the beginning from the end? Do you ever not feel like you are responsible for your actions? We trust in God and humble ourselves.
- We cannot do this Christian life with the person, power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Last week’s ‘The Economist’ said that oil was the power source that revolutionised the 20th century and renewables will do the same in the 21st. The Holy Spirit transformed the apostles in the 1st century and will do for all eternity. Don’t walk this week in your own strength. Come back to God. Surrender to Him.
- Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This news is universal, for the whole world. This news is particular, it is centred in Jesus. The Apostles met with opposition and challenge in their day. We will meet with the same in ours. Yet, the good news is good! Let’s Act. Let’s live it and declare it as this week we live, and move, and have our being.
That’s it for now… make sure you pick up a copy of the Acts Scripture Journal – free for all students.
Keep an eye out on www.thehubbelfast.org for more audio, video and writing over the weeks to come…