Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 5:17-32 (September 29, 2025)

September 29, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 5:17-32

Blessings and Peace on this Autumn morning when the temperature was 66 as we left for school. Please remember that this Sunday is Gospel Music Sunday. I hope that you will come to worship this Sunday to support the Gospel Music group, and take part in the Sacrament of the Altar, and share in the carry-in Mexican meal after worship. We will need some help with breaking down the meal set up in the parish hall, because the boys, Melody, and I will be on our way right after church to start our week’s vacation. I will be back for the following Sundays Bells choir rehearsal at 9AM, worship, and the Church Council meeting after worship. Thanks for your help. Jesse, James, and Jared will get the room set up before service. We are looking for some much colder weather, even if it takes a drive into Estes National Park to get to it. Please pray for Rachel whose husband Jim died on Sunday after an unexpected return of his cancer. Also pray for the Mormon community in Michigan who were attacked during their worship on Sunday morning, and their building set on fire. At least four were killed as recovery work in the building continues. Pray for peace in the Middle East, as Israel seems bent on destroying the Palestinians. So far in this war 66,000 people have been killed. This is an atrocious and horrible way to deal with the lack of harmony that has existed between the Jews and the Moslems. (There are also Christian people who live in these areas who are being killed.)  Pray for Globe, AZ as they deal with aftermath of severe flooding, and at least 4 deaths in their community.

In our reading for today, we discover that Peter and John, and the others are arrested for a second time by the Sanhedrin. I am certain that Peter and John knew what would happen again if they continued to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah, and do healing, and preach the Gospel of the Savior, all the while blaming the Jews, this being rightfully so, for Christ's death and punishment for bringing God's grace to His Jewish children, who then turned to destroy God's only begotten Son, and because the disciples were a threat to the Roman peace, no matter how tenuous it was.  When Peter was taken to jail, the jailer discovered that everyone was already back at the temple doing what they had been called and equipped to do, speak the truth about their Lord and Savior. So out of this passage, and the picture that it gives us of that day, there are three other things which need to be brought to our attention.

We should be ready to acknowledge that the disciples:

1. were really men of courage. This seems a bit contrary to how we saw them in that upper room, hanging on until everything looked safe again. Isn't amazing what change the Spirit of Christ can bring to our lives?

2. Two were really men of principles. They had made promises and commitments to continue the work of the LORD after he ascended into heaven, and even if they were afraid, they did everything and more that they had said they would do.'

3. were men with clarity about Christ's call, and the function which had been set in place for them. The disciples were eyewitnesses to the life, ministry, truth, and resurrection of Jesus. No one else could do what they were doing with such confidence in that work, offering the narrative of their lives experience with Christ.

Thank you for being with me today. I will be back tomorrow morning to share the next passage of Acts. With Christ's Love, Pastor Kim