Content related to Acts

Home » New Testament » Acts

Acts 19:1-7

Epiphany 1B

It’s even more sad than ironic that baptism is at least arguably one of the most divisive issues among Jesus’ friends. Christians whose baptism the Spirit unites sometimes argue almost endlessly with each other about things like the nature, proper timing and efficacy of baptism. Among the questions churches and denominations try to answer about…

Read More

Acts 1:1-21

Pentecost

It’s hard to remember a Pentecost Sunday on which the brokenness and division of the world into which God sent the Holy Spirit was on fuller display than 2023’s. So much pulls groups of people and nations apart that if people are to be united, something drastic must happen. Yet Luke begins his description of…

Read More

Acts 2:1-21

Pentecost

It was an annual holiday and so people knew what to expect.  That’s how it goes with regularly occurring events.  Yes, there can be minor variations but when it’s Christmastime, we all have our typical ways of celebrating the occasion and the same goes for Easter or Thanksgiving or even the Fourth of July.  We…

Read More

Acts 1:6-14

Easter 7A

When it comes to what’s up and what’s down in this passage, there is a lot of back-and-forth when you think about it. First off, as we begin Acts, Jesus is where he has been for about the last six weeks: he is mostly here on this earth walking around with, eating dinner with, and…

Read More

Acts 17:22-31

Easter 6A

Well, you win some and you lose some. Paul had some experience with the truth of that old adage, and some of the relevant experiences can be seen in Acts 17 and Paul’s famous conversation with the Athenians at the Areopagus. The day was not without its spiritual victories.  The chapter concludes by telling us…

Read More

Acts 7:55-60

Easter 5A

On the face of it, a six-verse Bible passage that centers on the brutal murder of an innocent man does not appear to be an edifying preaching text.  Perhaps that seems all the more to be the case when we realize this passage is assigned in the Year A Lectionary for the Season of Eastertide…

Read More

Acts 2:42-47

Easter 4A

Every once in a while when surveying the sometimes messy, untidy nature of church life, someone will say to me “If only the church today could be more like the Early Church in Acts.”  My typical, semi-cheeky retort to this is usually, “Have you read The Book of Acts?  We already are like the church…

Read More

Acts 2:14a, 22-32

Easter 3A

“And for all who are far off . . .” I guess that’s us. I guess that’s everybody. It was even, at least for a time, Peter and company.  After all, the crucifixion accounts make it clear that the disciples watched Jesus die from a distance.  It’s the same word as in Acts 2: makran,…

Read More

Acts 2:14a, 22-32

Easter 2A

Garry Wills once wrote a fine book titled, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America.  Wills claims that in the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln—in the span of a scant 272 words that took him all of three minutes to deliver—forever altered our understanding of the Declaration of Independence.  Lincoln was not even the main…

Read More

Acts 10:34-43

Easter Day A

“He was not seen by all the people.” I’ll say. This is what Peter tells Cornelius in Acts 10 as he sums up the story arc of Jesus’ life, including the world-altering fact of his having been raised from the dead.   Jesus was raised again!  He arose!!   But . . . by way of a…

Read More