And You Shall Be My Witnesses

Robert Kelvin Gee

Description

And You Shall Be My Witnesses reveal how the evangelical church can get back to basics and better serve her Master.

Confusion, false doctrine, and sheer foolishness continue to overwhelm the evangelical church— especially in the United States of America and in Europe.

It is important that Christians and local churches get back to basics, which means discovering how to live as followers of Christ and spread the Word.

Robert Kelvin Gee suggests that the best way to do this is to study how they did church at the very beginning. The Acts of the Apostles shows us this so clearly.

This book will take you verse-by-verse through the first twelve chapters of Acts, using a question-and-answer format to reveal how the church was born, how it grew, and how believers can ensure it stays on track. Get answers to questions such as:

• Why were the disciples commanded to stay in Jerusalem?

• What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit’s baptism?

• Did Jesus ascend from the Mount of Olives or from Bethany? And were there angels present or not?

Learn about the early church, ignite your faith, and spread the Word with the lessons and insights in this book.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Ecclesiology
• Christianity
• Religion
• History
• Church
• Bible

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 08 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664270152
• Langue: English

Extrait

BOOK I (ACTS 1–12)
And You Shall Be My Witnesses
A Verse-by-Verse Study of the Acts of the Apostles for Individuals and Small Groups
ROBERT KELVIN GEE


Copyright © 2022 Robert Kelvin Gee.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2004 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible® and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
 
Scripture quotations marked (NASB) taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
 
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
 
Scripture marked (KJV) taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
 
Scripture quotations designated (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7016-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7017-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7015-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022911556
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 8/4/2022
CONTENTS
Introduction
Background Information
An Outline of the Book of Acts
 
Chapter 1The Prologue
Chapter 2Waiting for the Holy Spirit, Part 1
Chapter 3Waiting for the Holy Spirit, Part 2
Chapter 4Waiting for the Holy Spirit, Part 3
Chapter 5The Waiting Is Over!
Chapter 6Initial Reactions to the Spirit’s Outpouring
Chapter 7Peter’s First Sermon, Part 1
Chapter 8Peter’s First Sermon, Part 2
Chapter 9Our First Look at the New Church
Chapter 10The Healing of the Lame Man
Chapter 11Peter’s Second Sermon
Chapter 12The First Signs of Opposition
Chapter 13The New Church Shaken into Action
Chapter 14What Happens When You Lie to the Holy Spirit
Chapter 15Apostolic Wonders and the High Priest’s Response
Chapter 16The Trial and the Victory
Chapter 17More Help and Coming Martyrdom
Chapter 18Stephen’s Defence of the Gospel, Part 1
Chapter 19Stephen’s Defence of the Gospel, Part 2
Chapter 20The Missions of Saul and Philip
Chapter 21The Sorry Story of Simon the Sorcerer
Chapter 22Philip and the Ethiopian Treasurer
Chapter 23The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
Chapter 24Saul Meets Ananias
Chapter 25Saul Begins His Ministry
Chapter 26Peter Is Back!
Chapter 27Two Remarkable Visions
Chapter 28Peter and Cornelius Meet
Chapter 29Peter’s Sermon in Cornelius’s Home and Its Results
Chapter 30Peter’s Report to the Church in Jerusalem
Chapter 31Introducing the Antioch Church
Chapter 32The Persecution Heightens
Chapter 33Peter’s Miraculous Escape
Chapter 34The Death of King Herod
 
In Summary: Book 1 (Acts 1–12)
Bibliography

To my wife, Denise,
the most caring, forgiving, and dedicated
life partner I could ever have hoped for.
INTRODUCTION
Can there be a better way for us in the twenty-first century to discover how to “do church” more biblically and, therefore, more effectively than to have one of the most reliable historians of the first century AD describe to us how people did it back then? Dr Luke has provided us just that. He has given us an often first-hand account of the triumphs and travails of the first thirty-five years of church history in fine detail and with compassionate understanding.
For those of us in Christian leadership or those wanting simply to undertake a deeper study of what theologians call ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church), there do exist indeed vast libraries of commentaries and other books and resources on the subject. But I believe it is critical in these very confusing and dangerous days for the church, in so many places, that we go back again and again to the real source of what we know about the very beginnings of Christianity, and that we do so with expectant hearts and curious minds. So it is we return to what some call “The Acts of the Holy Spirit”, and we say “Thank you, Dr Luke”, for he has given us a remarkable record of the subject. What we have in the two-part writing project by Luke (the third Gospel and the book of Acts) is an authoritative and reliable account of the birth pangs of the church.

Using This Book
The book before you has been designed for either personal, individual, or small group study, and it can be followed at the pace best suited to your circumstances. Each chapter is a self-contained study unit that could take anywhere from forty-five minutes to an hour or more navigate, depending on the depth of discussion or exploration devoted to it.
My suggestion is that a week before the meeting, you send to your study group the passage to be studied and the questions that are in boldface. As the study leader, you have been given fairly extensive notes to enable you to answer these and most other questions. Of course, I am not for a moment suggesting that you not use other resources in addition to this book, but I sincerely hope I have provided you with a comprehensive set of answers to the most likely questions.

On a more personal note, when I am reading a Christian book of any type, it is my preference to know the theological world view and perspectives of the author. So, in case you are anything like me in this regard, let me tell you from the beginning where I stand on such matters. I am a born-again, Bible-believing, evangelical, Reformed Christian, if that helps. On the question of the Bible itself, I believe the Scriptures to be verbally inspired, infallible, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient for all Christian faith and practice. Personally, I cannot fathom why anyone would tackle a project such as this, where the text is studied word for word, verse by verse, if one did not have a high view of the divine revelation. Furthermore, I believe that a Christian is one who is born again by the gracious work of Christ on the Cross and is absolutely reliant upon God’s Holy Spirit to speak to him or her from the pages of the Bible, to illumine the heart and bring clarity to the mind.
It is time then for us to open our Bibles and to begin our study of the Acts of the Apostles. But before we do so, I strongly suggest that you read the whole book through at least once. Get a view of the big picture before you begin to immerse yourself in the detail. And the big picture is a wonderful picture, a climactic story of what is to many the most important thirty to forty years of all of human history. From the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ in approximately AD 30, until the death of Paul the apostle somewhere between AD 67 and 70, we have the story of all stories. So let us enjoy it together.
And one more thing: before you commence any unit of study, please do not forget to come to God in prayer and ask Him to reveal Himself to you in the text. Without the work of the Holy Spirit in opening up the verses of Scripture to us, we may well find the study dry and unprofitable. With expectant prayer, we can count on God to guide us into all truth, just as Jesus promised in some of His final words to His disciples: “If I go, I will send Him [the Holy Spirit] to you. When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness and judgement. … When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:7–8, 13.)
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Just Who Is Dr Luke?
Now, of course, there will be those who suggest that there is no certainty at all about the authorship of Luke–Acts, amongst them F. C. Bauer of the Tubingen school in the middle of the nineteenth century and others such as Alfred Harnack, who while he does admit that Acts is a historical work of some merit, he nonetheless accuses the writer (not Luke) of “great instances of carelessness, and often complete confusion in the narrative”. 1 Amongst some modern scholars, N. T. Wright suggests, “Internal evidence for Luke’s authorship meshes with the tradition, but it is far from decisive.” 2
However, it is true to say that today the majority of serious evangelical scholar