THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 1, Introduction Today we cross a bridge; the name of that bridge is the Book of Acts. The dictionary definition of a bridge is: “A structure carrying a road or a path across an obstacle such as a river or a ravine.” The obstacle we…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 2, Chapter 1 In our introduction to the Book of Acts last week, one of the several reasons that I highlighted for deciding to teach this New Testament book (besides the fact that the Holy Spirit led me to do so), was because it forms…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 3, Chapter 1 continued Since we are early in our study of the Book of Acts from a Hebrew Roots perspective, I’d like to take just a few minutes to recap what we covered last week. We’re going to be going quite deep in Acts,…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 4, Chapters 1 and 2 Today we will complete Acts chapter 1 and move into chapter 2. We ended last time as Peter emerged as the spokesman of the young Messianic movement. In fact it is probably fair to say that as of the time…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 5, Chapter 2 continued Before we pick back up with Acts chapter 2 (which we still won’t complete today) and the dawn of a new age brought about by the arrival of “what the Father promised” (the Ruach HaKodesh ), let’s summarize what we discussed…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 6, Chapter 2 continued 2 Let us continue today in Acts chapter 2. We’re spending an inordinate amount of time in this chapter because there is an inordinate amount of information contained here concerning one of the most monumental events in human history: the arrival…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 7, Chapters 2 and 3 We’ll close out Acts chapter 2 and open chapter 3 today. But first as is our custom, let’s quickly review our previous session. One of the most memorable features of the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell Believers on…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 8, Chapter 3 continued Last week we concluded chapter 2 and began chapter 3 of Acts. And what we observed was that when we take these verses within the context of the 2nd Temple Judaism of Jesus’s era, and understand what the cultural mindset and…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 9, Chapter 3 continued 2 Before we move on in Acts chapter 3 with our discussion of the cripple who was healed by the power of Yeshua through Peter and John, let’s recall what we learned in our last lesson. We talked about the relationship…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 10, Chapters 3 and 4 We’ll continue to go at a measured pace through Acts chapter 3 and on into chapter 4 because there are so many theological implications that pass right by us if we don’t. And when they do come up it behooves…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 11, Chapter 4 We spent a goodly portion of our previous lesson in Acts creating a kind of diagram to understand just who the various players were in our story, what their titles and positions meant, and what the general social and religious conditions of…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 12, chapters 4 and 5 Keep your Bibles handy; we’re going to be doing a lot of reading today in both Testaments. Depending on who does the counting, the New Testament consists of somewhere between 45% and 55% Old Testament quotes. In other words, the…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 13, Chapter 5 I hope you are enjoying the Book of Acts as much as I am enjoying presenting it to you. In our Introduction to Acts I said that this book is the vital bridge from the Old Testament to the New, and I’m…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 14, Chapter 5 continued Amidst the incredible outpouring of God’s Spirit through the miraculous works and deeds of the disciples, what we see in Acts Chapter 5 is a rising level of tension and conflict between the followers of Yeshua and the local Jewish Temple…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 15, Chapter 6 We are going to explore some topics today that are as relevant to helping us to understand the Book of Acts as they are challenging to stay focused and to digest. We’re also going to discuss things about the Jewish religious institution…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 16, Chapter 6 continued Ready to get a little “heavy duty” today? I hope so. As we opened Acts chapter 6 last week it was prudent that we take the time to explore some ancient Jewish cultural issues in order for us to better understand…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 17, Chapter 7 The final words of our last lesson were meant to prepare us for today’s teaching in Acts chapter 7. Here we find Stephen, full of grace and power, standing before the Sanhedrin with a mob of angry Jews wanting to lynch him…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 18, Chapter 7 continued We are well into Stephen’s speech of Acts chapter 7, which will end in his death by stoning. His speech is essentially a recounting of Israel’s record of unfaithfulness towards God, and being stubbornly resentful towards God’s prophets, beginning with the…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 19, Chapter 8 We have a wide variety of issues that are going to come up today in Acts chapter 8 that I think you’ll find interesting. Last week we concluded Acts chapter 7 with the stoning death of Stephen, the first disciple of Christ…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 20, Chapters 8 and 9 In many ways Acts chapter 8 is a significant pivot point. Up to now all the activity concerning the knowledge and spreading of the Good News of the Gospel has taken place in the city of Jerusalem, has been strictly…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 21, Chapter 9 We began Acts chapter 9 last week but I purposely postponed getting too deep into the Scripture passages to instead focus our attention on the person of Paul; or better Sha’ul , which was his given Hebrew name. Paul is the English…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 22, chapter 9 continued Acts chapter 9 began with the fierce heretic hunter, Paul, determined to help eradicate this new sect of Judaism that called itself The Way, but whom the other Jewish factions called the Notzrim . But by halfway through the chapter Sha’ul…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 23, Chapter 10 Acts chapter 10 is one I have been looking forward to teaching for some time. It gets into an important subject that causes significant tension between Christians and Jews, and within Christianity and Messianic Judaism; it is the issue of whether the…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 24, Chapter 10 continued It is said that to a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So I suppose for me as a Hebrew Roots Bible teacher, Acts chapter 10 looks like one of those places in the Bible that needs to be attacked with…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 25, Chapter 10 conclusion We are still in Acts chapter 10. And while we’ll finish it today, the issues that surface from its God-inspired words are most challenging and profoundly important to our faith; so we’ll keep on hacking away at it to try to…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 26, Chapter 11 Before we begin Acts 11, I want to take a breather to summarize the high points of our study up to now so that we don’t get too swamped in facts and new terms and lose our way. But before I do…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 27, Chapters 11 and 12 Acts chapter 11 explains that after the incident with Cornelius and his household (when the Holy Spirit fell in a Pentecost-like event upon this group of gentiles), that Peter went back to Jerusalem where he faced a barrage of questioning…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 28, Chapter 12 We just barely got into Acts chapter 12 last week, and the first thing we see mentioned in the chapter is that Herod Agrippa is now the King of Judah. The chapter will end with his death. His grandfather Herod the Great…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 29, Chapter 13 As we concluded Acts chapter 12 last week, the focus that had been mainly on Peter and the goings-on in the Holy Land now shift to Paul and to the foreign lands that were home to the majority of Jews. We have…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 30, chapter 13 continued We’ll continue today in this rather long chapter 13 of the Book of Acts, although we won’t quite finish it. There is much to be learned from this chapter about the person of Paul, and about the formation of the Gospel,…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 31, Chapters 13 and 14 At Pisidian Antioch (there were many Antiochs), Paul said this to the synagogue congregation he was addressing as recorded in Acts 13:38 and 39: Acts 13:38-39 CJB 38 “Therefore, brothers, let it be known to you that through […]

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 32, chapters 14 and 15 Our study of Acts chapter 14 today puts us at the halfway point in our study of Acts, but it also essentially completes the contextual background for understanding what comes next in pivotal chapter 15. So we’ll look at a…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 33, chapter 15 In a typical English Bible translation the first 14 chapters of Acts contains about 12,400 words. Chapters 15 – 28 (the end of the book) usually contain about 12,500 words; so indeed where we sit today as we study this pivotal 15…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 34, Chapter 15 continued As we continue in our study of Acts chapter 15 we’ll find ourselves taking a few detours much as we did when studying the Torah. This is necessary to address issues and subjects that are subtly woven into the fabric of…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 35, Chapter 15 continued 2 As we continue our examination of Acts chapter 15, I’ll remind you that we are spending an inordinate amount of time here because this chapter is so crucial to a correct understanding of our faith. But this chapter is also…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 36, Chapter 15 continued 3 Last time we looked closely at Acts chapter 15 verse 20, where the supreme leader of The Way, Yeshua’s brother James, says this referring to the new gentile Believers living in Antioch: Acts 15:20 CJB 20 Instead, we should write…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 37, Chapter 16 Today we will study Acts chapter 16, which is often called Paul’s 2 nd missionary journey. Before we do, I want to take just a short time to sum up what we learned from Acts 15 as it will significantly affect the…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 38, Chapter 16 continued The significance of Acts chapter 16 is that it is what scholars call Paul’s 2 nd missionary journey, and in it we see Paul extending the geographic and ethnic range of his Gospel message beyond the areas where Jews had substantial…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 39, Chapter 17 Last week in Acts chapter 16 we saw that Paul and Sila were arrested in the town of Philippi and thrown in jail accused of inciting a riot. It took a miraculous action of God (an earthquake) to free them before any…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 40, Chapters 17 and 18 We are in Acts chapter 17 and last week we ended our study with defining the belief systems of two groups that Paul encountered in Athens: the Epicureans and the Stoics. These two groups in no way passed for religions…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 41, Chapter 18 We continue in the Book of Acts chapter 18 as we see how Paul continued the expansion of the Yeshua movement into places more and more distant from its birthplace in Judea and Galilee. In this chapter we are told about Paul…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 42, Chapters 18 and 19 We have been following Paul’s missionary journeys, where he is taking the Good News to the many foreign nations of the Roman Empire (starting with the many Jewish communities) that the Messiah that the Jews had been waiting for has…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 43, Chapter 19 We just got started in Chapter 19 of Acts last week when we ran out of time. We have much to discuss today that comes from what is written in this chapter; things that most of us have perhaps not considered. The…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 44, Chapters 19 and 20 It is eye-opening to notice that up until the 19 th chapter of Acts, actual behavioral changes of new Believers coming to faith in Yeshua has not been something we’ve seen. Rather Luke’s focus has been about how Paul and…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 45, Chapter 20 Acts chapter 20 finds Paul leaving the tense situation of Ephesus after being caught up in a riot started by the Silversmith guild over his teaching about idols not being real gods. What is important to remember about this event is what…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 46, Chapters 20 and 21 We have a little more to cover to complete Acts chapter 20 and then we’ll move immediately into chapter 21. Paul is in Miletus, a province of Asia, which is a few miles south of Ephesus. He doesn’t think that…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 47, Chapter 21 We continue in The Book of Acts, which is our necessary primer to give us the context and background for understanding everything that comes in the New Testament following the Gospels (and especially for understanding Paul’s letters). Acts 21 has brought Paul…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 48, Chapters 21 and 22 We’ll continue in Acts 21 and then finish up in Acts 22 today. When we left Paul he was in Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot after spending many years of establishing Believing congregations in Macedonia and Asia. He had just begun…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 49, Chapter 23 Back in Acts chapter 19 we read this: Acts 19:21 CJB 2 1 Some time later, Sha’ul decided by the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and then go to Yerushalayim. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 50, Chapters 23 and 24 This is our 50 th lesson in the Book of Acts. We’ve been at this for a year and the reason for the deliberate pace has, I hope, become apparent. We’ve taken many detours to carefully examine the explosive rise…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 51, Chapter 24 As we continue with Acts chapter 24 (and we’re going to go into depth in chapter 24 today due to some seriously important faith issues in these passages), we find Paul standing before the Roman governor, Felix, in the provincial capital city…

THE BOOKS OF ACTS Lesson 52, Chapters 24 and 25 Our last lesson dealt primarily with Paul’s defense to the ludicrous legal charges made by the Sanhedrin, as the trial was being held in front of Governor Felix in the provincial seaside capital of Caesarea Maritima. What made the charges…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 53, Chapters 25 and 26 In Acts chapter 25 Paul is standing before the new governor of Judea, Festus, who has been joined by King Agrippa and his sister Bernice. This is not a formal trial, per se. It is more an informational gathering; it…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 54, Chapter 26 We’ll begin at verse 9 of Acts chapter 26 today. So open your Bibles there. At the picturesque seaside port city of Caesarea Maritima, the provincial capital for the local region including Judea, Sha’ul is standing before Governor Festus, King Agrippa and…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 55, Chapter 27 There’s something about a sea story that has captivated listeners and readers since there were ships to challenge the awesome power and mystery of the great deep, and survivors to tell their harrowing tales. People who have never been on a boat…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 56, Chapters 27 and 28 Today we will arrive at the final chapter of the Book of Acts. Although it seems like the entire book has been mostly about Paul, the first half of Acts actually focused mostly on Peter and the Yeshua movement in…

THE BOOK OF ACTS Lesson 57, Chapter 28 End of Study Today we bring the Book of Acts to a close. It has been a long odyssey and when we complete chapter 28 I’ll briefly review and summarize the book. When we concluded last time, Paul was in the presence…