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TGOC ANNOUNCES
LESSONS ONE AND TWO IN ITS
NEWLY REVISED SERIES ON
THE BOOK OF ACTS
In this newsletter we are pleased to announce the availability of the first two lessons ("The Gospel in Jerusalem—Part 1" and "The Gospel in Jerusalem—Part 2") in our newly revised series on the Book of Acts.
In part one of his lesson on "The Gospel in Jerusalem" (which covers Acts 1-4), Ben Bailey begins by noting that the Book of Acts "is indeed a book containing the actions of the New Testament church, and is the foundation of all things related to the church and salvation." Just as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John teach us about how Christ lived and why He died, the Book of Acts tells us how to become like Jesus by becoming Christians.
As Ben points out, the Book of Acts has a three-fold purpose. First, it is a book of conversions. If a person wants to learn what to do to become a Christian, it is to the Book of Acts that he or she must go for that information because it is the Book of Acts that explains how the apostles and their first-century converts took the Gospel message to those around them. As a result, in many chapters within the Book of Acts we find people being converted to the Gospel. Today, we can read the inspired accounts of what they did to become Christians, and then do exactly the same things to become Christians ourselves.
Second, the Book of Acts documents for us the establishment of the Lord's church. Long ago, in Daniel 2:44, God had promised that a "new kingdom" would be set up during the time of the Roman Empire. It was promised in Isaiah 2:1-4 that that kingdom would be established in Jerusalem. Interestingly, when we open the Bible to Acts 2, we find that in Jerusalem during the time of the Roman Empire, Peter preached the first Gospel sermon, people subsequently obeyed the Gospel, and "the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47). Acts shows us the grand establishment of God's eternal kingdom, the church.
Third, Acts provides an important history lesson relating to the New Testament epistles. For example, if we want to learn about the Book of Ephesians, we need to look in Acts 19 in order to understand the background and establishment of the church in Ephesus. If we want to learn about the establishment of the church in Corinth (and thus the historical background that relates to the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians), we need to read Acts 18, where we find that information. Many of the epistles that compose the New Testament find their backgrounds within the Book of Acts.
In Acts 1 we find a basic outline relating to the rest of the book. The key point of the book is found in Acts 1:8 where Jesus said to His disciples, "You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." The story began in Jerusalem, and then spread to Judea. Eventually, the apostles and disciples moved into Samaria. Then, finally, through the missionary journeys of Paul, the Gospel was taken to "the uttermost parts of the world." In Acts 2, we find the establishment of the church on the Day of Pentecost. In Acts 3 we see an important miracle occurring (a lame man being healed), which would be one of many miracles whose purpose it was to establish the truthfulness of the message being preached by the apostles and disciples. In Acts 4, much of what happens is predicated upon the miracle that had taken place in Acts 3. The people had seen the miracle, and could not deny it. But the Jewish leaders still wanted to know, "How did this happen?" In fact, in Acts 4:7 they asked Peter and John, "By what power or by what name have you done this?," which gave those two apostles the perfect opportunity to explain that Jesus Christ was the name and power behind their message.
As Ben continues part two of his lesson on "The Gospel in Jerusalem" (covering Acts 5-8), he starts by examining the divine punishment (in Acts 5) that befell Ananias and Sapphira when they lied to the Holy Spirit. Their deaths caused great fear to fall upon the whole church—which turned out to be a good thing because it showed Christians that God meant what He said, and that He would not tolerate sin among their ranks. As a result, we find the Christians urgently striving to teach their friends and neighbors "the words of life" (Acts 5:20). But the success of their efforts upset the Jewish leaders, who placed some of the apostles in prison—only to find them released by an angel sent from God so that they could continue to spread the Gospel. In Acts 6, we see the church in action in a benevolent way. There were certain Greek-speaking Jews (Hellenists) who were being neglected in the daily distributions of food, clothing, and funds. These people were members of the church, but they were not being provided for adequately. As a result, seven men were chosen to help these people with their physical needs.
In Acts 6 and 7, we also see Stephen's sermon and his ultimate martyrdom. He preached a message that he knew would very likely offend the Jewish leaders, yet he steadfastly refused to compromise what needed to be said. As a result, he paid for his actions with his life. In Acts 8, we find a man by the name of Saul who was breathing threats against the church, wreaking havoc on God's people, and even preparing to drag Christians to prison. We also find the story of Simon the sorcerer, who was converted to Christ but subsequently fell from God's grace because he desired to purchase with money the ability to do miracles. Fortunately, Peter's chastisement of Simon brought him to repentance, and he was forgiven of his sin.
Both of these new lessons are now available on our Website, where you will find them in video, audio, and written transcript formats. We invite you to examine them for yourself, and to share them with others.
MORE BIBLE QUIZZES AVAILABLE
FOR MOTIVATIONAL SERIES
In our last newsletter of 2007, we announced the availability of the first four Bible quizzes in our Motivational Series of lessons ("The Blessed Life," "Excuses, Excuses, Excuses," "Relighting Our Passion for Jesus," and "The Power of Persistent Prayer"). In this, the first newsletter of 2008, we are announcing the next four quizzes in that series: (1) "Comfort from Above"; (2) "What Are the Greatest Things in Life"; (3) "Reward for Service"; and (4) "The Suffering of Job." Additional quizzes in the Motivational Series will follow in the coming weeks. These quizzes, and many others, can be found on our Website at www.thegospelofchrist.com/quiz.
TAKE A LOOK AT
OUR
2007 STATS!
Now that 2007 is history, we would like to share with the readers of our newsletter what we believe are some rather intriguing year-end statistics. By the time that December 31, 2007 had come to an end, our Website had received more than 3,518,934 page-hits (an average of 293,245 per month!). The 2007 figure was more than double the number of page-hits we had in 2006 (1,627,081). Of equal interest is the fact that the 2007 figure represented visitors from 141 different countries. We also learned from a year-end review of our 2007 statistics that visitors to our site are staying longer and doing more while on the site.
In 2005, the bandwidth downloaded from our Website was a "mere" 65 gigabytes. In 2006, it climbed to 407 gigabytes. But in 2007, it was 832 gigabytes! Plus, in 2005 we received 322 media requests (for CDs and DVDs) through the Website. In 2006 we received 1667. And in 2007 we received 2,515. During the twelve months of 2007, we shipped free media to 49 states in America, and to 35 different nations around the globe.
Needless to say, we are overjoyed at these results—which is why we wanted to share them with you. With each passing day, we are working ever more diligently to carry out our goal of "taking the whole Gospel to the whole world." Join us in this task, won't you, by sharing the news about our work (and our Website) with neighbors, family members, or friends. We would appreciate it. And, we believe, so would they.
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