Title: The Message of Early Christianity
Contents For several weeks from today, I would like to study the sermons of the apostles in the book of Acts as the Holy Spirit leads them. The book of Acts contains a considerable amount of sermons, so it may take some time to study them all.
Archaeologists and historians dig to find traces of ancient civilizations. The tool they use the most is a hoe. Because I have to dig the ground. So, whether we are looking for the site of a house where people lived in the past, an urn, or an inscription on a tomb, we want to dig up the ground to obtain historical data. So, by studying it, I guess that people in the old days lived like this, and things like this may have happened in the past. Such objects, the objects they dug out of the ground, may be the garbage that people used in the past or the cemetery where people were buried, but now they can become very valuable materials and treasures for us.
In addition, when an airplane crashes or catches fire while flying, experts identify the scene and identify the cause and cause of the accident. A few years ago, a Concorde plane crashed while taking off. Even then, experts supervised the scene and were able to establish that the cause of the accident was that a foreign object on the runway punctured the wheel of the Concorde plane, and it was sucked into the engine and caused a fire. The reason they were able to draw that conclusion was that they found a foreign body of metal at the scene of the accident and found torn marks on the tire. It was said that the shape of the foreign material and the torn mark matched. There is no Sherlock Holmes.
How many of these bibles are you holding? Sixty-six volumes? It's one volume. I haven't seen anyone carrying sixty-six books. I carry one book. However, it is bundled into one book, and there are many books in it. Thirty-nine books were collected in the Old Testament and twenty-seven books in the New Testament. There were other books besides that, but they were excluded from the process of making the canon. So, the lack of records is not the problem, but there are so many records that it was necessary to select from them. There are only four records of Jesus' public life. That is the Gospel. The four evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John recorded the events of Jesus, and there are letters written by the apostles, such as those written by Paul, and Peter, John, Judas, and Hebrews of unknown author. There is also a letter from James.
Many of these records all convey the same message. We are delivering the same message about Jesus, such as faith in Jesus, the Lordship of Jesus, salvation through faith in Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus. What I want to tell you is, why do humans who can make big theories by looking for these little clues, whether they're digging for pots, inscriptions, or skeletons, would ignore the rich evidence of the Bible? Even if the Bible is not the word of God, but a book that records people's thoughts, it is worth studying even with it because of its vastness and historicity. . There is no book like the Bible in the world. No other literature like the Bible can be found in the world in terms of emotion, truth, and consistency. The Bible is unique.
I hope that you will have a time at work or at your friends' gatherings, at least once a month, to study the Bible together and to pray for one another. I know the reality that it is difficult for office workers to have cell meetings in the evening because modern people are getting busier. However, you can do it during your lunch break or break at work. The other is not a cell meeting. And we don't even have to bring people who gather there to our church. If there is a church you already attend, you should respect it. However, if people who want to work gather together to pray, read the Bible, discuss and pray with each other, you will already become a cell leader, a fisher of people, and a little shepherd even if you are not officially appointed by the church. . It does not require specialized theological training. And there are many people in the world who need these gatherings. Because you can't find peace anywhere else, if there is a meeting like this at work, there will always be people who want to attend.
Today's text is a verse that has a rich content even as a historical source.
The first shows the appearance of primitive Christianity. primitive Christianity. Many people think that the church was born on the day of Pentecost, but the church already existed before Pentecost. These people in today's text were the core members of the church. According to verse 15, ?쐔he number of the assembled crowd was one hundred and twenty.??These were the first Christians who believed in Jesus and prayed together. The text records that among them were eleven disciples and women, Mary the mother of Jesus, and the brothers of Jesus.
Second, it shows how the primitive Christian community met when they met. The first thing they did was, ?쁔hey were all working together in prayer.??Second, they shared the Word. If you look at the text, doesn't it show that Peter got up and preached, 'Brothers'? Many claim that Peter's first sermon was on the day of Pentecost, but Peter preached even before that. This is Peter's first sermon written in the text. The quoted Bible verses appear here too, and this is a sermon given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This was not done because Peter thought he had to preach, but improvised by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and God's revelation was contained therein.
And the other fills the void as they gather to pray and share the word of God. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus and left. perished. You shouldn't leave that blank. In the kingdom of God, we must not leave a vacant place for those who served. So they filled the vacancy with a man named Matthias and made the number twelve complete.
When Judas Iscariot betrayed and Jesus suffered, the Christian community suffered. I got hurt. suffered hardship. But Jesus was resurrected. And when I looked back at the wounds they suffered, the wounds were not that great. And he filled the void in Judas. What we are waiting for now is for the Holy Spirit to come and the Holy Spirit to work. Only the Holy Spirit can come and work. They are ready. This is what we will be studying next week. Hallelujah!