Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Click Here to Read or Listen to Acts 9 Saul’s Conversion There are many famous conversion stories in the bible but probably none more famous than the conversion of Saul, who later became Paul. Saul was so intent on stopping the Christian movement that he traveled all the way to Damascus to chase the Christians down. He hoped he might round them up, imprison them, and bring them to Jerusalem.  As he was traveling, a bright light from heaven flashed, and he fell down to his knees. The voice said, " Saul, Saul why do you persecute me!" Saul knew there was a divine presence as he said, " Who are you Lord? "' The voice said, "I am Jesus who you are persecuting."   While Saul was not literally persecuting Jesus, by persecuting his followers, he in effect was persecuting him. Why? Because Jesus lives in us. Paul says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory!"Colossians 1:27 Saul was immediately blinded, and Jesus told him to go into the city of Damascus,

Click Here to Read or Listen to Acts 8 The Church Persecuted and Scattered After Stephen's killing, the church started scattering due to heavy persecution. They only ones who didn't flee were the apostles. Godly men buried and mourned for Stephen. Meanwhile, Saul was going from house to house rounding up the believers. He put both men and women in prison.  While the church grew very quickly, it also dispersed very quickly.  Philip in Samaria Those who were scattered included Philip, who was one of the 7 deacons just called to serve the church. Philip not only preached the word but also did many miracles and cast out demons. Not just a few people but " many, many ", says Luke. Though Philip was not an apostle, he was doing everything that the apostles were doing after Pentecost. This brought great joy to the city.  It showed that everyone could do the things Jesus did, because they were given the power of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead

Click Here to Read or Listen to Acts 7 Stephen’s Speech to the Sanhedrin When the high priest asked Stephen to respond to the charges of teaching against the customs and laws of Moses, Stephen proceeded to give them an Old Testament history lesson. He begins by recounting Abraham's journey from the Mesopotamia to Harran, where his father died. God then told Abram that his descendants would be enslaved for 400 years, which we now know was in Egypt.  Then, he recounted the covenant of circumcision God made with Abraham, which was implemented when Abraham received the child of the promise, Issac. Issac was circumcised when he was eight days old, according to this new covenant God had made with Abraham. From Issac came Jacob, and from Jacob came the 12 sons, who would become the 12 tribes of Israel.  Jacob's sons became jealous of his youngest son Joseph Joseph was Jacob's favorite son, mostly because he was born to his wife Rachel, who he loved more than his other wife Leah. M

Click Here to Read or Listen to Acts 6 The Choosing of the Seven As the church grew exponentially, the demands on the apostles to do things like resolve conflicts between the Greek speaking and Jewish widows, increased exponentially as well. This prompted the 12 apostles to tell the disciples to choose seven mem who could serve as deacons meeting the more practical and administrative needs of the community.  Importantly, the apostles said that they needed to focus on "prayer", and the "ministry of the word ". Though it wasn't below them to do things like, " waiting on tables ", it took their focus off of important matters such as preaching and teaching God's Word and spending copious amounts of time in prayer. As a pastor of 30 years, I know full well this challenge. I think every pastor faces it at some level or another. The bottom line as Paul says in Ephesians 4,  the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that th

Click Here to Read or LIsten to Acts 5   Ananias and Sapphira Not everything was "hunky dory" in the newly formed church. Though we saw in the last chapter people were selling their property and putting the proceeds at the feet of the apostles, in the case of Ananias and Sapphira not so much. Though they had sold their property, they gave some to the church but kept some of the proceeds to themselves.  The real sin here is deception. When they laid down the proceeds with the apostles, they were publicly stating that they were giving it all to the church. But, Peter also says that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit. Though we don't know deliberately how he did this, before one lies to another human usually they have lied or at least tried to deceive the Holy Spirit. Of course, since the Holy Spirit is God, he was never going to get away with it.  But, then something dramatic happened. When Ananias heard this, he fell over and died. Wow! As you would imagine great fear seized

Click Here to Read or Listen to Acts 4 Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin The religious leaders were not happy that Peter and John were preaching about Jesus' resurrection. They thought they had effectively eliminated the threat of Jesus when they killed him. Note, their preaching and teaching centered around the resurrection of Jesus, as it should today. They seized them and put them into jail because it was evening. Amidst the persecution, the church grew from 3,000 to 5,000 people.  The church often grows not declines in times of persecution . The next day all of the religious leaders plus Annas, the high priest, and his family brought Peter and John before them. They asked them, "By what power or what name did you do this?" We don't know if they were genuinely curious or trying to trap them. It was probably the latter.   "In their thinking, the power resided in the name, because the name represented the character of the person." - Guzik Peter, filled b

Click Here to Read or Listen to Acts 3 Peter Heals a Lame Beggar We all encounter homeless people on a fairly regular basis, and the question I usually ask myself is " What would Jesus do? ". Would he give money to this person? Would he try to help them find a job? What if they didn't want any help other than money, would he walk away? Sometimes it is easier to just drop a dollar in a their coin box just so you don't have to deal with them. I have probably done all of the above at one time or another.  Peter and John were going up to temple, and they met a beggar who was lame since birth. Anyone would have some compassion for someone who was born with this lifetime disability. It says others carried him to the temple, so he could beg for money. That is an interesting arrangement. When the beggar asked them for money, Peter asked him to look straight into his eyes. The beggar expected to get money now that he had gotten their attention. But, he got something much bettt

Click Here to Read or Listen to Acts 2 The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost The Old Testament had predicted a time when the Holy Spirit would come on all people in places like Joel 2, Ezekiel 36, Zechariah 4, and Jeremiah 31. Jesus also said it would be good for him to go back to the Father, so He could send the disciples the promised Holy Spirit. And on Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit came like tongues of fire upon the disciples.  They were gathered in one place, the Upper Room, when the whole place began to shake with a violent wind from heaven, and tongues of fire separated and rested on the disciples. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in "tongues", as the Spirit enabled them. This was the beginning of speaking in tongues, but it would have a special purpose as the church was born.  Because of the Feast of Pentecost, there were God-fearing Jews from all over the world in Jerusalem. Importantly they heard the gospel about

Click Here to Read or Listen Acts 1 to Acts 1 We have finally finished going through the four gospels, and today we begin the book of Acts, or more correctly called " The Acts of the Apostles." The first verses in chapter 1 are the exact same verses for the most part as the first verses of Luke 1. This shows us that the book of Acts was a follow up book to Luke. Originally they were probably not separated. They are both written by Luke, the Physician, who accompanied Paul on his missionary trips.  "In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen." Luke tells us that Jesus appeared to the apostles many times during the 40 days after his resurrection, and he gave them many convincing proofs that he was a alive. Importantly Jesus gave them this command,  "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Fathe

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 21 Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish One of the things I like about the gospel of John is all of the personal interactions with the disciples and other people in his gospel. Although there are several resurrection appearances recorded in the four gospels, this one is pretty unique.  7 of the disciples were out fishing on the Sea of Galilee, the sight of where Jesus had called Peter and three other fishermen in Luke 5. The story starts out with Peter saying, "I'm going out to fish" . We don't know if Peter was compromising the call Jesus had for him to be his disciple, or he was just practically getting back to the work that funded his ministry.  But the bottom line is that they fished all night and caught nothing. You wonder what went through Peter's mind, as he contemplated the events of the past week including Jesus' death, his threefold denial, and Jesus' appearance to he and John. When they ran to the tomb, it

Click Here to Read Or Listen to John 20   The Empty Tomb It is interesting that Mary Magdalene is the first person to run to the empty tomb and not one of the disciples. When she finds the tomb is empty, she runs to tell Peter. She does not conclude that Jesus had risen from the dead, but that someone had stolen the body.  When Peter and presumably John (aka the other disciple) hear about it, they both run to the tomb. Apparently John was faster on his feet, because he beat Peter the tomb. But, he did not go into the tomb. Peter didn't hesitate to go into the tomb to check out what had happened in keeping with his personality. Peter saw both the cloths of linen they covered his body with and the cloth which they wrapped around Jesus head. Curiously they were neatly separated.  This is one of the things that seems to go against the explanation that someone stole the body out of the tomb. They likely wouldn't have stayed around long enough to leave these two things so neatly orga