When Facts are Crowned with Meaning
A short introduction to the second chapter of Acts
The meaning of scripture, in this way, is the gift of God to the questions that he, himself, excites in man. This is illustrated on Pentecost day, in the litany of strange phenomena that overtakes the crowd that is gathered in Jerusalem.
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Temptation, Patience & the Gift of God’s Time
Temptation as the ground of triumph
Only faith may so work in the presence of temptation to produce what temptation sought to destroy—virtue. This is the irony of James’ admonition.
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The Power of God Conceived in his Revelation to Man
The gospel, God's rule, and righteousness
Accordingly, human notions of both power and purity were challenged, toppled, and then turned right-side-up by the gospel. Rome imposed its power by a sword; the church found its increase by a word that invited believers of every tribe and people.
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Mood, Medium, & Message
The character of revelation informs the content of the sermon
Paul first makes his readers to understand the facts upon which their faith depends, for faith must understand the works of God before it gives answer to the will of God.
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The Gospel & Corresponding Christian Witness
The facts of the gospel shape an ironic ministry
The Apostolic witness regarded the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the fact of the resurrection was combined with the records of Jesus’ life and death, these together became the essential characteristics of a different kind of news, even a new kind of news—the gospel.
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Word & Deed on the Plane of Time
A field in Canaan confirms the character of God & man
The chapter begins with the silence of God, but that yields to the kind of creative speech that can only belong to God: He will return to Sarah the time of life. But the elderly couple? They must learn to say less—or perhaps speak differently, and that in agreement to what God has spoken.
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Conceiving a Fiction
True practice & promotion is apprehended in the resurrection
Arguments are frequently founded upon the implausibility or impossibility of their falsehood; but Paul’s tack is different. He is so sure of the resurrection’s fact, and so committed to all its attending consequences, that he makes the logic and character of this life to hinge upon the veracity of Jesus’ resurrection.
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Image: Dhaulagiri from a trail south of Myagdi Khola, 2009 | Photograph by RAH .
