As I read these words today, I want to reflect on my time with the members of Argentine Mennonite Church and the practical ways you have expressed your faith in Jesus Christ. There are many things I could share but let me highlight a few. Firstly, this congregation has been one of the most diverse congregations I have ever come across. AMC has had people who are rich and poor, Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Asian Indian, educated and not so educated, traditionally Mennonite and completely non-Mennonite, young and old, formally dressed and informally dressed, able bodied and disabled. I ..read more

Today we are going to look at one of the problems the early church faced and how the Apostles solved it. Our passage is in the start of the 6th chapter of Acts. Scholars who do the chronological research tell us that we are about 5 years past Pentecost at this point. The church at this time is growing extremely fast and when you grow that fast you are crossing into new ethnic groups. In this case the ethnic group that is coming into the church are the Greek speaking believers who were originally Jewish. They were Jews who grew up in other parts of the world and therefore had different mother t ..read more

When I preached last Sunday, the text I used went all the way to the end of chapter 5. My focus was on looking at Professor Gamaliel’s thinking that helped navigate a very difficult situation. He did not try and convince them of an new truth that they not already believe. Rather he simply take the elements of their existing world-view and come up with an action plan that would avoid spiritual harm and keep open the possibility of discovering the truth of who Jesus Christ might be. So, we looked at how professor Gamaliel saved the day but we also looked at how his reasoning can be applied to th ..read more

The passage we are going to work with today is something that interests me in a special way because I have meditated on Gamaliel’s approach and thinking for a long time now. The portion we are looking at today is a long one. I could not break it into smaller chunks because we have to take in the whole story and then look at the competing forces going in there and then draw out the principles being put forth for our understanding. This is our task for today. First let’s take a quick look at the story ..read more

Returning to our journey through Acts, this weeks passage you may have noticed is not a narrative of dramatic events. This week’s passage is instead a summary statement of the early church. We saw another summary statement previously at the end of chapter 4. That statement talked about how much unity there was in that church and also how much they shared their possessions to take care of each others needs. In contrast, this summary statement focuses on the healing ministry of the early church. Just recently in Acts chapter 3 you will remember, we witnessed a dramatic healing story of the man w ..read more

Last Sunday we looked at the end of Acts 4 where the early Christian community was at its best almost ideal state. They had an incredibly high level of unity of mind and spirit, they had boldness to witness to preach the Word of God and they had a community in which no needs went unmet. As a result, the author declares that God’s great blessing was upon them all. That kind of blessing, I hope is the goal of anyone who is walking the Christian life. But even in those days it was not like 100% of the members of the church were in of the same mind and spirit. There will always be those problemati ..read more

Today we will focus on a miracle that happened when Peter and John were going about their business on day. This entire section from chapter 2 to 5 focuses on the events that took place in Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem it is always Peter who is the center of the action. In the later part of Acts when the action moves beyond Jerusalem, you will find that it is Apostle Paul who is at the center of the action. But whether it be Peter or Paul or anybody else, these narratives are laid out to show the reader how closely linked these miracles and teachings were to what Jesus himself did and taught. The ..read more

Let’s look at some key points in David’s life in this Psalm, to see how God led him through this tragedy. David Sought God through the pressure he faced ..read more

In Acts two we started with a look at the awesome events of the day of Pentecost. We followed that by digging into Apostle Peter’s sermon which included both a Biblical explanation of these events and a convicting tie-in to Jesus Christ who is ultimately responsible for these events. And the mark of a good sermon is that it moves its listeners to action. And moved they were. In fact we are told that 3000 people were added to the church that day. That fact alone is astounding. But what is most informative for us is to look at how did these brand new Christians did church. But before we go there ..read more

Friends we will continue our journey into the events of the Day of Pentecost for two more Sundays including today. Our focus today will be on Peter’s sermon. This was not a preplanned sermon. When the events of Pentecost happened some people in the crowd where in awe and others were coming up with silly speculations. Peter understood clearly what God was doing and wanted to explain it to the gathered Jewish diaspora. So he gets everybody’s attention and preaches and this sermon is what we are looking at today ..read more