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The book of Acts was written by Luke. The book once again addresses Theophilus(lover of God). It starts by telling of the ascension of Jesus on the Mount of Olives. There an angel appears to the men of Galilee and tells them that Jesus will someday return to that place. Acts 2 deals with the upper room and Pentecost where Jesus had told the disciples to go in order to be baptized with power from on high before they would go out and make disciples of all men as stated in the synoptic gospels. In the upper room, wind comes down from heaven and the believers are baptized in the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in other tongues. They were speaking in the language of several peoples around this area as there was an Arab quarter here and the Armenians had a few shops here as well. I witnessed the site of the upper room in Jerusalem on my trip to Israel and you can just imagine how the people from different cultures each heard the gospel in their own language. This is without a doubt why speaking int tongues occurred in this passage so that the gospel could spread among the other peoples of the world. Acts 2 tells of the community of believers in the early and how they broke bread together. Acts tells about the healing of a man who was unable to walk in chapter three at the temple gate in Jerusalem . Atcs tells of the first known martyrdoms of Christianity which start with Stephen and then moves on to James the fisherman. Acts tells of the conversion of Saul, a Pharisee who once persecuted the Jews. It sets the stage for the epistles that would be written by this charactar who after his conversion changed his name to Paul. Acts also tells of the conversion of the famous Gnostic magician, Simon Magus. It chronciles the ministry of Paul and his outreach to the Gentiles. Acts also presents the authority of James the brother of Jesus in the early church. James had authority that is often ignored. In Acts 15 there was a council in Jerusalem over the issue of should the converted Gentiles adhere to Jewish customs. The decision rendered is that they should do that which is in accordance with the Jewish customs while Jews are in their presence so they will not offend them. Acts tells of Paul and Silas jailed in a city when an earthquake breaks out. There they convert the Phillipian jailer to Christianity. In the early parts of Acts, Christianity is very well portrayed as what indeed it started out as. Before being its own seperate movement, Christianity was considered a cult within Judaism. There is no sign of a seperate Christian movement that is considered a different religion until the 180's AD in the writings of Justin Martyr who harbored an Antisemitic attitude towards the Jews. Acts tells of Paul rebuking a woman who is going around proclaiming that these men are servants of the Most High God. The reason the woman is rebuked is because she is a fortune teller and she is disturbing the ministry of Paul. Christianity throughout the book of Acts is referred to as the Way. The word Christian is born at Antioch. Before then , Christians were called the followers of the branch or they were also called "little christs." The book of Acts was written to present the reason that Christianity grew. It also does a good job of portraying the persecution of Christians and the appearing of Christians before government authorities. Paul almost convinces one of these authorities to accept Christ. The book tells of how Paul was bound in Jerusalem because the Jews were the cause for which Paul was bound. This is told by the prophet Agabus. As Paul arrives on the island, he is bitten by a snake but the Lord immediately heals the wound. He ended up on the island because of a shipwreck. The snake bite is significant because it portrays what is really meant by the passage in Mark 16. Some groups such as the snake-handlers have used this passage to say that Christians should handle snakes on a regular basis to test God. However, such an idea is absurd and out of line with the hermaneutical interpretation of scripture. |
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