Pleasure & Profit in Bible StudyMoody, Dwight Lyman
Religion
Pleasure & Profit in Bible Study
Moody, Dwight Lyman
Bible -- Study and teaching
Luke's gospel was taken up with Christ in the body, Acts with Christ in
the church. In Luke we read of what Christ did in His humiliation, and
in Acts what He did in His exaltation. With most men, their work stops
at their death, but with Christ it had only begun. "Greater works than
these shall ye do, because I go to My Father." We call this book the
"Acts of the Apostles," but it is really the "Acts of the Church
(Christ's body)."
You will find the key to the book in chapter 1:8: "But ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
We would not have seen the struggles of that infant church if it had not
been for Luke. We would not have known much about Paul either if it had
not been for Luke.
There were four rivers flowing out of Eden; here we have the four
gospels flowing into one channel.
Three divisions of the Acts:--
I. Founding of the church.
II. Growth of the church.
III. Sending out of missionaries.
I believe that the nearer we keep to the apostles' way of presenting the
gospel, the more success we will have.
Now there are ten great sermons in Acts, and I think if you get a good
hold on these you will have a pretty good understanding of the book and
how to preach. Five were preached by Peter, one by Stephen and four by
Paul. The phrase, "We are witnesses," runs through the entire book. We
say, to-day, "We are eloquent preachers." We seem to be above being
simple witnesses.
I. Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost. Someone said that now it
takes about three thousand sermons to convert one Jew, but here three
thousand were converted by one sermon. When Peter testified of Christ
and bore witness that he had died and had risen again, God honored it,
and he will do the same with you.
II. Peter preaches in Solomon's porch. A short sermon, but it did good
work. They did not get there till three o'clock, and I believe the Jews
could not arrest a man after sundown, and yet in that short space of
time five thousand were converted. What did he preach? Listen:
"But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be
granted unto you;
And killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead:
whereof we are witnesses.
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the
Lord."
III. Peter preaches to the high priests. They had arrested them and were
demanding to know by what power they did these things. "By the name of
Jesus Christ, . . . doth this man stand here before you whole." When
Bunyan was told he would be released if he would not preach any more, he
said, "If you let me out I will preach to-morrow."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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