What is the theme of this chapter?
Our Lord's commissioning of the 12 apostles.
What is the key verse(s) of this chapter? Verses 7-8
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
What can I apply to my life from this chapter (things to do/avoid)?
This is something I can definitely apply to my own life: "These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer..."
Additional observations/questions:
The Book of Acts presents many problems, especially since much of it is transitional. But these problems are greatly multiplied by the theory that this book is the record of the birth and growth of the Church today. I can't help but think that one of the main reasons for Pentecostalism's tremendous growth these last hundred years is due to this kind of thinking. In fact, Acts has so often been called the account of the "birth and growth of the Church" that the statement has come to be accepted almost without question. But "the Church which is His body" doesn't even enter into the first large portion of the book, and while it does have an important place in the latter half of the book, it isn't even designated by its distinctive name there. It's only in Paul's epistles that we learn that the Body had indeed begun during the latter part of the Acts period.
I sincerely believe that if we go through this book, verse by verse, honestly — without spiritualizing away the hard bits and without reading what Paul says in his epistles back into its early chapters (it says what it says!) — the whole of the NT will become so much more clearer, so much more understandable. Truly, it will alleviate much of the confusion in the Church today.
See also: http://tis-justme.blogspot.com/2011/11/pentecostalism.html
http://tis-justme.blogspot.com/2011/12/pentecostalism-part-2.html
Our Lord's commissioning of the 12 apostles.
What is the key verse(s) of this chapter? Verses 7-8
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
What can I apply to my life from this chapter (things to do/avoid)?
This is something I can definitely apply to my own life: "These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer..."
Additional observations/questions:
The Book of Acts presents many problems, especially since much of it is transitional. But these problems are greatly multiplied by the theory that this book is the record of the birth and growth of the Church today. I can't help but think that one of the main reasons for Pentecostalism's tremendous growth these last hundred years is due to this kind of thinking. In fact, Acts has so often been called the account of the "birth and growth of the Church" that the statement has come to be accepted almost without question. But "the Church which is His body" doesn't even enter into the first large portion of the book, and while it does have an important place in the latter half of the book, it isn't even designated by its distinctive name there. It's only in Paul's epistles that we learn that the Body had indeed begun during the latter part of the Acts period.
I sincerely believe that if we go through this book, verse by verse, honestly — without spiritualizing away the hard bits and without reading what Paul says in his epistles back into its early chapters (it says what it says!) — the whole of the NT will become so much more clearer, so much more understandable. Truly, it will alleviate much of the confusion in the Church today.
See also: http://tis-justme.blogspot.com/2011/11/pentecostalism.html
http://tis-justme.blogspot.com/2011/12/pentecostalism-part-2.html
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