Note to myself: Two weeks of readings and ideas combined into one post.
Sermon Notes (listened to on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024)
Acts 2:37-47, Douglas Wilson
The response to Peter's preaching:
- random residents of Jerusalem were attracted to a spectacle
- the message of the gospel went right to their heart and they asked what they should do
- Peter answered that they should repent, be baptized and the gift of the Holy Spirit would be given
Peter was preaching to actual murderers of Christ and he offered free and total forgiveness for them and their children. He told them that the destruction of the city of Jerusalem was for certain and that needed to save themselves from the coming judgement.
3000 souls were converted and baptized, and continued in four things:
1. apostolic teaching
2. the breaking of bread
3. prayer
4. fellowship
The believers were devoted to share with one another in meals and goods, in turn they received favor from others who also feared them. God kept adding to their numbers.
At the pool of Siloam on the southside of the temple complex, the pilgrims first cleansed themselves, then went on up to the temple where they cleansed themselves again in the smaller baptistry areas called mikvahs built around the temple area.
The local believers sold their property and goods perhaps understanding the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the impending loss. The out-of-town pilgrims would have needed to be accommodated as they stayed longer in Jerusalem then perhaps they first intended.
What did Peter mean 'for you and your children'?
Luke 18:15, infants were brought, carried to Jesus as part of those who God promised His covenant to.
Deuteronomy 5 and 7 describes God's kindness to 'thousand generations' but the O.T. record of family generational faithfulness was poor. But God did not give up on His promises.
The new converts steadfastly devoted themselves because they had new life and needed nourishment. (Newborn babies are born hungry)
Four pillars of the 1st century church reiterated:
1. apostolic teaching- The Didache
2. fellowship - koinonea- intertwined lives
3. breaking of bread - likely communion/eucharist
4. corporate prayer
The point of Biblical rhetoric is to leave everyone without an excuse, but it is not for everyone to believe and agree to. The preaching of the gospel brings division, some believe and some unbelieve or remain 'undecided'.
The gifts of the Spirit are distinct from the fruit of the Spirit
1 Corinthians 1:7 - the church had all the gifts
1 Corinthians 3:1 - all the gifts, yet no fruit, because they were unspiritual.
Do not confuse a gift with fruit. Being a great teacher but without Christian character is not having the Spirit.
Gladness and simplicity of heart were results of the converts activity.
God exempts no one from the worship of Him. All are commanded to worship Him.
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"Towns produce vicious men because they produce corrupted men. The mountains, the sea, the forest produce men of the wild; they develop the wildness in them, but often without destroying their humanity." Les Misérables, Victor Hugo (p. 80)
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"Reading nonfiction prose well rewards us by helping us understand the context of ideas common to humanity."
...
"Reading poetry and other imaginative literature rewards us by helping us experience vicariously not only the way other people think, but also the way they feel as they think. We learn to see with the eyes and heart and mind of others..." How to Read Slowly by James Sire, p. 69
"The good reader does not begin by finding what he is looking for, but by finding what is there." p. 73
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From prep for our first upcoming Sunday School class on Matthew 1:
"If you look at this list of people very carefully you see some famous names. But you will also see that they are all sinners. How could sinners be in such a list? This is the list of the ones from whom Christ was born! This is just what is so wonderful, children. You know that there is a list also now that keeps on going. And your name is on that list for you are a covenant child. You too, belong to God. We know that we are sinners, but we know that sinners can be on that list, for Christ came to save sinners.
...
He was like unto His brethren in all things, sin excepted. He became one of us so that He might take our sins upon Himself and die for them. So when you read this list of sinners, remember that the list goes right on and we are on it. A list of those whom Christ was willing to call brothers."
(Covenantal Catechism, Book 4, The Gospels by Harry Van Dyken)
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"We are not our own; but God, who has given us life, and whose we are, has planted within us Conscience, to remind us continually that we owe ourselves to Him, and must order our ways to please Him, and that He is the Judge who will visit every offence surely and directly, if not today, then tomorrow." (Ourselves, Book 2, Charlotte Mason, p.6)
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John Calvin on Ezekiel 1
"He also prophecies against heathen nations, like Jeremiah, especially against the children of Ammon, the Moabites, the Tyrians, the Egyptians, and the Assyrians."
-to prophecy against a heathen nation is to require all nations to serve God. There is no room for pluralism. God calls people everywhere to worship Him.
in the closing prayer from Lecture 1, he used the phrase "recall it to life"
It is very close to the phrase, Dickens uses repeatedly, in A Tale of Two Cities: "Recalled to life"
also in the prayer: "gathered into that happy kingdom"
Ezekiel 2:6- "do not be afraid of them or their words... do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them"
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"He really did not know where he was any more. Like an owl that might suddenly see the sun rise, the convict had been dazzled and, so to speak, blinded by virtue. (emphasis mine, Les Miserables, Victor Hugo, p. 105)
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