There were a couple things that stood out to me in this chapter. One is that after the Seven Sons of Sceva story (which is hilarious in my opinion), there was a great fear among the church so that in v. 18 - "Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. 19A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. (around 8million in my calc) 20In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
What does v. 18 mean - were the people already disciples, but hadn't dealt with their sins? Or were they people who believed but never really became disciples until this event occurred, so this event was really what lead them to be saved? Thoughts?
Also, I think it is interesting that Paul had what apparently were non-christian friends in high places.
Lastly, Paul submitted to the brothers - I am sure that if Paul wanted to, he could have forced the issue and spoken in front of the crowd, but for what it's worth, he listened to the brothers, and those brothers didn't appear to get into trouble with Paul. Reply to this
April 20, 2009 8:59 AM
Tony wrote:
We have heard of the Holy Spirit, we have been baptized into Jesus Christ, has anyone spoken in tongues? Maybe that is a thing of the past, who knows. How would you like to be like Paul? Paul was almost like Jesus. Driving out evil spirits, healing the sick just by something that touched him. The demons knew of Jesus and feared Him. But they also knew Paul and feared him. What does that say about Paul's faith. To be on the same playing field as Jesus, at least where the demons are concerned what a righteous person he must have been. I think not much has changed as far as having many believe doing evil deeds in secret. The problem is lack of confession, be it big in public or one on one. Either way not enough is being done. When was the last time any of us confessed our sins to one another? I can't remember. Reply to this
Must be city clerks were of more importance than we place upon ours today.
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I concur regarding the city clerk.
There were a couple things that stood out to me in this chapter. One is that after the Seven Sons of Sceva story (which is hilarious in my opinion), there was a great fear among the church so that in v. 18 - "Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. 19A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. (around 8million in my calc) 20In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
What does v. 18 mean - were the people already disciples, but hadn't dealt with their sins? Or were they people who believed but never really became disciples until this event occurred, so this event was really what lead them to be saved? Thoughts?
Also, I think it is interesting that Paul had what apparently were non-christian friends in high places.
Lastly, Paul submitted to the brothers - I am sure that if Paul wanted to, he could have forced the issue and spoken in front of the crowd, but for what it's worth, he listened to the brothers, and those brothers didn't appear to get into trouble with Paul.
Reply to this
We have heard of the Holy Spirit, we have been baptized into Jesus Christ, has anyone spoken in tongues? Maybe that is a thing of the past, who knows. How would you like to be like Paul? Paul was almost like Jesus. Driving out evil spirits, healing the sick just by something that touched him. The demons knew of Jesus and feared Him. But they also knew Paul and feared him. What does that say about Paul's faith. To be on the same playing field as Jesus, at least where the demons are concerned what a righteous person he must have been. I think not much has changed as far as having many believe doing evil deeds in secret. The problem is lack of confession, be it big in public or one on one. Either way not enough is being done. When was the last time any of us confessed our sins to one another? I can't remember.
Reply to this