Simmons TPT The Book of Acts

12-Lesson Study Guide
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-4245-6765-2
Verlag: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

Reihe: The Passionate Life Bible Study Series

To the Lovers of God. The book of Acts is a vivid portrait of the birth of the church. The Holy Spirit is central, anointing God's people to bear witness to the gospel and perform mighty wonders and healing miracles. This book will awaken your soul and empower you to join the apostles in spreading God's kingdom on earth.      This 12-lesson study guide on the book of Acts, designed for both individual and group study, provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey exploring details regarding the authorship of Acts, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. The study then walks you through every portion from the book and includes features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history.      Enrich your biblical understanding of the book of Acts, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.  

DR. BRIAN SIMMONS is a passionate lover of God. After a dramatic conversion to Christ, Brian knew that God was calling him to go to the unreached people of the world and present the gospel of God's grace to all who would listen. With his wife, Candice, and their three children, he spent eight years in the tropical rain forest of the Darien Province of Panama as a church planter, translator, and consultant. Having been trained in linguistics and Bible translation principles, Brian assisted in the Paya-Kuna New Testament translation project. After his ministry overseas, Brian was instrumental in planting a thriving church in New England (U.S.) and currently travels full time as a speaker and Bible teacher. He is the lead translator of The Passion Translation®.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Simmons, Brian

Leseproben

LESSON 2

Jesus Keeps His Promise

(1:2–2:47)

After Luke identifies his recipient and links Acts with his Gospel (Acts 1:1), he shares some facts about Jesus’ last days on earth, some of which he had mentioned in his Gospel’s last two chapters. But he also adds some information, especially about what Jesus told his disciples before he ascended into heaven.

Spirit-Filled Instructions

Jesus promised his followers that the same powerful one who had empowered him and his ministry—namely, the Holy Spirit—would also empower them and their mission (v. 5). What Jesus promised them would also be for all who put their faith in him (Romans 8:1–17; 1 Corinthians 12; Galatians 5:16–26). The church is Spirit-powered because every believer receives the Spirit when they receive the Son by faith.

In Acts 1:6, the disciples showed that they still hoped that the coming of the Spirit would indicate the political liberation of Israel from Roman rule. But Jesus did not confirm this hope. Instead, he shifted the disciples’ focus to what he wanted them to do, starting in Jerusalem and eventually extending “even to the remotest places on earth” (v. 8). And then what follows in Acts shows the disciples engaging in this mission through the power and guidance of the Spirit.

Jesus’ mandate to witness not only gives

us the theme of Acts but also a basic table

of contents by the threefold reference to

“Jerusalem,” “all Judea and Samaria,” and

“the ends of the earth.” To be sure, Luke’s

development of the table of contents is

fuller and more subtle than its succinct

form here. Nevertheless, in what follows he

shows through a series of vignettes how the

mission of the church in its witness to Jesus

fared at Jerusalem (2:42–8:3), throughout

Judea and Samaria (8:4–12:24), and as

it progressed until it finally reached the

imperial capital city of Rome (12:25–28:31).22

Of course, this mission for Christ’s followers to be his messengers, his witnesses, has been going on ever since the first disciples were initially empowered by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). The church has been carrying out this mission for two thousand years, bringing the good news about Jesus Christ to every people group on the globe. This needs to keep occurring because new people are born and raised, and they need to hear the gospel (the good news) too.

Heavenly Ascension

Replenishing the Twelve

  WORD WEALTH

According to Proverbs 16:33, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (NIV). In Scripture, casting lots was often used for making important decisions.

Aaron, on the Day of Atonement, chose by

lot one of the goats for a scapegoat to bear

the sins of the people into the wilderness

(Lev 17:7–10, 21, 22). The division of the

land of [Palestine] after the conquest was

accomplished by lot (Josh 14:2; 18:6; 1

Chron 6:54ff.). The service of the Temple,

including the music (1 Chron 25:7, 8), the

doorkeepers (26:13ff.), and the supply of

wood fuel for the altar were regulated by

casting lots (Neh 10:34ff.). The guilt of

suspected criminals was established by lot

(Josh 7:14; 1 Sam 14:42).24

Lots may have consisted of stones, wood, arrows, or animal bones. When the apostles decided to replace Judas, they may have written the names of Matthias and Barsabbas on stones, placed those stones “in a cloth bag or vessel, and then the first stone drawn out named the one selected.”25 With the apostles’ lot casting bathed in prayer and a selection process that included clear and justifiable qualifications for the candidates and a scriptural rationale for replacing Judas, they expected that whoever the lot designated would be God’s choice, and so it was. The Twelve were restored with the addition of Matthias.

Here Comes the Spirit!

The Spirit came to the one hundred twenty gathered disciples on “the day of Pentecost” in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1). Pentecost was a Jewish festival that came “fifty days after the first Sabbath after Passover (Exod. 23:15–17; 34:22; Lev. 23:15–21; Num. 28:26; Deut. 16:9–12). It was also known as the ‘Feast of Weeks’ or ‘Day of Firstfruits.’”26 Bible scholar Harold Hoehner gives the date for this event as May 24, 33.27

Defense of the Spirit’s Arrival

The apostle Peter stands up as a spokesman for the other eleven apostles and defends (offers an for) the genuineness and truth of what the gathered crowd had witnessed.

Peter then turned his attention to the last line of Joel’s prophecy, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (v. 21; see Joel 2:32). Who is this Lord? That was the matter Peter addressed.