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The Sanhedrin knew Peter and John had performed a noteworthy miracle (Acts 4), but they didn’t want that truth to get out. They tried to intimidate the apostles into silence. The church always faces enemies who want to suppress the truth. In today’s world of censorship, intimidation, threats, spin and speech police, the church is…
Peter’s sermon in Acts 3 isn’t just an evangelistic speech. As soon as Peter mentions Jesus, he reminds the Jews of what they did to Jesus. He shifts into accusation gear. He becomes a witness for the prosecution. The Jews delivered Jesus up to the Romans and disowned Him before Pilate. In renouncing Jesus, they…
After Jesus ascends, His disciples gather in an upper room in Jerusalem (a “high place”) to devote themselves continuously to prayer (1:14). They keep praying throughout the book: And that’s only from the first half of Acts! Clearly, if we want to be a biblical church, we must be devoted to prayer. Many Christians find…
Let me say it out loud: Immanuel Reformed Church is tiny. We’re not just tiny. Measured against the needs of the church and the world, we seem downright pathetic. We don’t help ourselves by making grand theological gestures. It would a comfort to believe the church is supposed to be tiny and pathetic. But we…
Every time God does something new, there’s a burst of song. It begins at the very beginning, the first new thing. Tolkien and Lewis were right: God sang the world into existence by His Word and Spirit-melody. At the Red Sea, Israel sang the song of Moses (Exod 15:1-18). Deborah composed a song after Israel’s…
When Jesus surveys Israel, He sees a people distressed and dispirited, like sheep without a shepherd (Matt 9:36). She’s sick, demon-possessed, unclean, dead. Jesus answers all Israel’s needs. He addresses all her distress. He proclaims the kingdom, heals the sick, cleanses lepers, raises the dead, casts out unclean spirits. Jesus’ advent is the advent of…
In many churches, Advent is, like Lent, a penitential season. We prepare for the Lord’s coming by self-examination, confession of sin, and repentance. Before the Lord comes, we clean house. That fits the Gospel account of Jesus’ arrival. John the Baptist calls Israel to repentance and adds: “The axe is already laid at the foot…
God doesn’t command us to observe a Christian calendar, but we have good reason to do so. First and foremost, a biblical reason: Though there’s no list of holidays in the New Testament, Yahweh did give Israel a detailed calendar, which commemorated the exodus (Passover), Sinai (Pentecost), and the wilderness (Booths). As the fulfilled Israel,…
The Lord called Abram from Ur of the Chaldees just after He scattered the nations from Babel. Abram was Yahweh’s answer to Babel. How did this work? Yahweh explains: “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so…
What did Jesus do to make the Jewish leaders hate Him enough to kill him? As N.T. Wright puts it, what made Jesus “crucifiable”? There are many answers. Jesus publicly shamed Pharisees and scribes with His parables, ripostes, and rebukes. He attacked symbols of Jewish identity – the Sabbath and the temple – and redefined…
Immanuel Reformed Church 