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CONNIE: Have you experienced a power shortage lately—I mean in your personal life—or maybe in your church? Join us today as we look at the book of Acts and consider how God’s power moved the early Christians. Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko. Today we continue our journey through the New Testament with a look at the book of Acts—certainly one of the most fascinating books in the Bible.

CONNIE: Well, I guess what makes it so interesting is that it’s full of stories—much like the early books in the Old Testament.

LONNIE: Stories of how God’s power moved on people’s lives.

CONNIE: But there is a difference between how the Spirit moved here in the book of Acts and what we find in some of the earlier stories of the Bible, isn’t there?

LONNIE: That’s a very good point, Connie. Because it’s important for us to recognize as we read the Bible that God has worked in different ways at different times in order to reach people.

CONNIE: Wait, are you saying that God has changed—that the God of the New Testament is different from the God of the Old Testament?

LONNIE: No, that’s not what I’m intending to say. What I mean is—well, you have a teenage son, Connie, right?

CONNIE: Yes.

LONNIE: He’s a neat kid—a very bright boy. And I imagine it can be a challenge to keep up with him sometimes.

CONNIE: You can say that again.

LONNIE: But I daresay that the way you respond to him now, in his late teenage years, is different from how you treated him when he was a toddler.

CONNIE: Of course.

LONNIE: Well that’s what I’m trying to say about God. God is still the same, today, yesterday, always. But people change, and their needs change, and He’s adapted His way of reaching out to people through the years. So, while in the Old Testament, we may find the Holy Spirit coming upon one of the judges and inspiring him or her to great deeds of war, in the New Testament, the warfare has become more a battle of spirits than swords.

CONNIE: So, what you’re saying is that God changes the way He works in order to meet the needs of the time.

LONNIE: Right. And the time of Acts was a very special time in world history. Ken Wade—who’s kind of our staff historian as well as our writer-producer—spoke with you recently about that, didn’t he?

CONNIE: He did indeed!

LONNIE: Let’s listen in on that conversation.

CONNIE: Ken, welcome to this side of the glass…

KEN: Well, glad to be over here.

CONNIE: You know I love talking to you Ken because you have all these sort of little known historical details about things that all of us know about in the big picture but we don’t get into the “Nitty Gritty” like you do. I’m just really excited to talk to you today about Acts, and I’m looking at something now, it’s very colorful, and you might remember listeners that Ken is the one that came up with these Bible timeline charts. Actually they have been a very popular gift item in the past, but you have been working on one about Acts. I’m looking at this one today, the beginning of Christianity AD 22 to 70, tell me about this. I know it’s not done yet but…

KEN: No, it’s something that I have been working on. This is an era that we probably know more about than we do about any other era in the Bible. You know, the things that were going on in the rest of the world, it’s pretty complex and very interesting for me to study and try to fit all of these pieces together.

CONNIE: Well maybe when this gets completed we can offer it to our listeners…

KEN: That would be great!

CONNIE: Ken, give us a little overview of what the world was like during the time of Acts.

KEN: Well of course we’re talking about the early days of the Roman Empire, and people don’t maybe realize that the Roman Empire didn’t really begin until the time of Augustus, which is you know just before the time of Christ. Tiberius is the second emperor of the empire, and he was the emperor at the beginning of the book of Acts. Then we have Caligula, and than Claudius, and finally Nero, who was the emperor who put Paul and Peter to death. What I think is really interesting about that is when Paul is writing to people and saying you should obey the authorities who are appointed by God it’s people like this…it’s people like Nero that he is writing about.

CONNIE: Was he really to blame for the burning of Rome?

KEN: Well, historians think that he probably was, and as a result he needed somebody else to blame and the Christians ended up being the ones that were blamed for that and ended up being burned to death as torches and that sort of thing.

CONNIE: What were some of the main ways that the Roman Empire; the historical era of the time, contributed to the events that are recorded in the book of Acts?

KEN: Well, of course the first would the crucifixion of Jesus, which was done under Roman authority. Interestingly, some historians believe that the Roman authority had been somewhat relaxed by the time we get to the story of Steven because the Jews didn’t have same sort of compunctions about killing someone at that time, they didn’t say, well only the Romans have the right to capitol punishment. They just took Steven out and did it!

CONNIE: Really!

KEN: And so, there was a time about 36 AD, about the time that Pilate was fired from being in charge there, when the Romans relaxed their authority over the Jews a little bit, and that may fit in there. Of course, the presence of the Roman road system is inestimable in its value for the spreading of Christianity and for Paul’s ability to travel from place to place. The fact that everybody was under one government allowed for easy transit from place to place, which could not have happened earlier. Paul’s Roman citizenship is a good contribution to this too because it gives him the right to move about, with some degree of impunity, although he did get into a lot of trouble along the way.

CONNIE: But is it possible to know exactly when the events recorded in Acts actually occurred, I mean to pinpoint the dates?

KEN: Some of them are. There’s a man named Gallio who’s mentioned when Paul is in Corinth, interestingly, he was actually the brother of the great orator Senneca. He is mentioned in conjunction with Paul’s time there Corinth, and we know exactly when he was proconsul in Corinth, and we can nail down that date somewhere around 51 or 52 AD, and work backwards and forwards from there for some of the other dates. There are a few other dates that come up as well, and reckoning from them we can have a fairly good idea of where these things fit

CONNIE: Ken, I know that you get fascinated with all sorts of things that might be otherwise dull to anyone else, but you find the fascinating parts of things and make them fascinating for other people. So for Acts, what is the most fascinating part to you?

KEN: Well a couple years ago I really got interested in Paul’s time that he spent in Ephesus, the place that he spent the longest. Over two years, almost three, he spent there, and it was while he was in Ephises that the gospel really began to go to the Gentiles, not just to Gentiles who’d been attending synagogue, but to all Gentiles in general spread all across Asia which is now Turkey today. All of these things reveal how the power of God was working in a very special way. Pentecost was only the beginning. From there the gospel spread a lot further.

CONNIE: Why do you think that the book ends really rather abruptly with Paul in prison in Rome, then it’s over?

KEN: There’s an interesting book out right now where one man theorizes that the book was actually written as sort of a legal defense brief for Paul’s defense when he was under trial in Rome, so of course it wouldn’t go beyond that point. But I don’t know if that is really the basis of it or not, but it’s an interesting thought anyhow.

CONNIE: So we’re dealing with a very carefully constructed documented history in the book of Acts aren’t we?

KEN: We really are, and Luke takes care both in his gospel of Luke and in the book of Acts, to tell us exactly who was in charge at various places, and historians are very interested in the fact that he uses just exactly the right terms for people. So we know that he has carefully documented his material, and he has given us a story of how the power of God worked. I just think that it is so fascinating for us to try and understand then how the power of God can continue to work in the church.

CONNIE: That was Christian Edition, singing about how God’s power has been manifested in many ways at different times.

LONNIE: Whether it’s creating the universe, or re-creating a human heart through His love, God’s Spirit moves in powerful ways. We’ll be looking at the biblical book of Acts in a moment, and focusing on how God’s power worked in the church in those early days, but before we get to that, let me ask you—has Bible study become a regular part of your life?

CONNIE: It’s through the Word of God that the power of God becomes active in our lives, and that’s why we always want to encourage our listeners to not only listen to sermons and programs about the Bible, but dig right in yourself and let God’s Word speak to you.

LONNIE: As an introduction to the great themes of the Bible, not much can beat the 26 lessons of the Discover Bible course that we offer freely to anyone who requests it. So, if you haven’t done so already, why not enroll and begin taking the Discover Bible course today?
CONNIE: It’s easy—you can enroll online at our web page, www.vop.com, or you can call our toll-free number 1-800-872-0055 and ask to be enrolled in the Discover Bible Course.
LONNIE: Right now, though, let’s listen to Lonnie’s message for today, “Acts—Unlimited Power

Power Unlimited

Imagine it! The promise of unlimited power! For free!

What would you do if a man approached you on the street corner tomorrow, and said “Hey Buddy, have I got a deal for you! Here’s plans for a new machine that lets you burn water for fuel! You can run your car for free!”

Well, if you’re like me, you’d probably just laugh—or maybe humor him for just long enough to find a good excuse to high-tail it out of there.

Yeah—water for fuel! Unlimited power. You know the old saying—if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!—probably is too good to be true, that is.

But wait a minute. Did you know that there are serious scientists, working in laboratories all over the world, who honestly believe that the energy wave of the future will be made up of—what else—water!

Maybe you remember it—more than a dozen years ago now—the headlines that came out of a chemistry lab at the University of Utah: "Breakthrough process has potential to provide inexhaustible source of energy!” The article that followed told about the work of two scientists who believed they had developed a way to cause nuclear fusion to occur in a test tube at room temperature—a process called cold fusion.

If their claim proved true, the results could go way beyond astonishing. It could revolutionize everything in the world. As one scientist put it, “With really cheap energy, we can make fuel from water and mountains. . . . Los Angeles could get all its water straight out of the Pacific Ocean . . . . Then there's Australia—vast areas of very fertile soil, a good climate, but no rain. I envisage aqueducts bringing water in from the ocean. It could become the breadbasket of Asia!”

Or, as another writer put it in very practical, appealing terms: “We could all own our own little cold-fusion power plants one day. No more gas stations. No more utility bills.”

Sound interesting?

Living in California as I do, and having been through the recent power shortage and price increases—it sounds really inviting to me.

Well, if you remember the news reports, you know that the excitement the original story generated soon died down as other scientists found they couldn’t duplicate the U. of Utah results. You may be interested to know though, that since then, others have succeeded in getting energy from water using the cold fusion process. Unfortunately though, no one’s found a way to consistently get enough energy to power anything much larger than a flashlight bulb. And cold fusion research doesn’t get much attention, or much funding these days.

Because it hasn’t lived up to its original promise.

Now friend, I’m not sharing this with you because I’m particularly interested in cold fusion or generating electricity. The mystery of how all that happens is far beyond my scientific expertise. I share this story because it has an amazing parallel in the Bible.

Do you remember the words of Jesus, found in Acts 1:8: “ ‘But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth’ ” (NKJV).

That’s a pretty big promise, isn’t it? A promise of power so great that it will reach out and change the whole world.

The question we have to ask is, did Jesus’ promise prove true?
And that’s the question the biblical book of Acts sets out to answer. Let’s consider the evidence. Did the initial promise of Jesus’ words prove true—or did it turn out to be just a lot of media hype?

It doesn’t take long for the book to begin to provide answers. Chapter 2, verses 1 & 2, as translated in the Jerusalem Bible read “When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting.”

There’s power already being delivered. You know, I can’t help but think of that text every time I set out to drive over toward Palm Springs from Los Angeles. If you’ve ever taken Interstate 10 through the mountains there, you’ve seen the hundreds and hundreds of windmills—turning and generating electric power from the force of the wind.

In answer to the disciples’ united prayer, power came down upon them, and suddenly they were able to do something they had never done before—they were empowered to speak in various languages—not just any language mind you. There was no meaningless babbling going on here. No one, I dare say, was speaking Korean or Navaho. Because there wasn’t anyone there who could understand those languages. No, the disciples were empowered to proclaim the gospel in just enough languages to reach the very people who had gathered there in Jerusalem.

But that wasn’t the only time the Holy Spirit delivered special power. Read on through the book of Acts, and you’ll find that time after time, the Holy Spirit came to provide amazing power just where and just when it was needed.

A few days later, when Peter and John were going up to the temple, they saw there a man who had been born crippled. Peter looked at him and spoke that famous line, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6, KJV).

And that’s just what the man did. Soon he was running and jumping, and skipping, and cavorting all over the temple courtyard, and people were beginning to ask questions. How did this happen? How was this man healed? And Peter was ready with an answer: “ ‘Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?’ ” (Acts 3:12 NKJV).

Peter wasn’t about to take credit for what the power of the Holy Spirit had done in the name of Jesus. He gave credit where credit was due. The Holy Spirit was working mightily through him, and through the other Christians as well.

The power of God had changed a cripple into a dancer! Acts 3:8 says the man went into the temple walking and leaping and praising God!

His life had been transformed.

And as you read through the book of Acts, you’ll find many more lives that were transformed by the power of God. We don’t have time to look at all of them today.

But we mustn’t neglect to tell the story of one particular man whose whole life was completely turned upside down by the power of God—a man who went on to turn a lot of other people’s lives upside down as well. In fact, he and his friends were even accused of turning the whole world upside down (Acts 17:6).

Saul was already a man of great power when he met Stephen. He was recognized as an authority in the things of God. And he was empowered by the Sanhedrin—the religious/political power body in Jerusalem—to enforce their way of looking at things. They gave him a travel budget, and a police force, to go around from place to place seeking out Christians and dragging them into court.

Saul even had the power of life and death over people. Later in life he testified about what he had done in these words: “ ‘Many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them’ ” (Acts 26:10, NKJV).

But then something happened to him one day on the road to Damascus. He was on a business trip—looking for more Christians to put to death—when a bright light shone around him, overpowering him, and he heard a voice speaking from heaven, saying “ ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ ” (Acts 9:4 NKJV).

And suddenly, the man who had been out to kill everyone who believed in Jesus found himself being transformed by the power of God. Suddenly he realized that Jesus had indeed been resurrected and gone to heaven to sit down at the right hand of God. It was no made-up story. No media-hyped miracle. It was real. And now that power had a hold of him!

And that power kept a hold on him for the rest of his life.

And nothing was ever the same again.

Not for Saul—even his name was changed to Paul.

And not for the rest of the world, either.

Because when the power of God got a hold on that man, a lot of other people’s lives started to change as well.

I hope you’ll take the time to read the book of Acts this week. And as you do, notice the stories about how the power of God worked through His people in those early days.

Consider how many lives were changed.

Consider how the world was changed.

And consider one more thing. The life of Saul/Paul was drastically altered by his encounter with Jesus. But notice this: It didn’t suddenly make everything start going smoothly for him. If anything, his life became a lot bumpier, a lot rockier than it had been before.

Here’s just a sampling of what happened to him, as he described it in 2 Corinthians 11:25-27: “Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked . . . in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers . . . in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness” (NKJV).

And in the end, the man who had persecuted and killed others for their faith in Jesus ended up being persecuted and dying a martyr for Jesus.

But he did it all with joy, with his hope fixed and centered on Jesus—the One who had empowered him from heaven to do whatever needed to be done to spread the gospel to all the world.

Did it work? Did the power Jesus promised from heaven really change things?

You be the judge. Sit down and read the book of Acts, and you be the judge.

And then one more thing, before I close today.

What about you? Have you discovered the power of God—the power of the Holy Spirit in your own life?

Let me flash back for just a moment to the story I began with—the idea of unlimited energy coming from cold fusion. It sounded too good to be true, and perhaps it was. But what really went wrong? Why can’t researchers consistently get cold fusion to work? A large part of the problem seems to be in the impurities in certain elements—including water—that are used.

What’s lacking is purity.

Is there any chance that could be a problem in the church today? Or in our individual lives?

Is the Holy Spirit able to live and move in you? Has He changed you? Are there more changes He needs to make, in order to purify you to be the channel of His unlimited power?

The power is still there. The power is real. Won’t you take a moment right now, to look up into heaven. To look up to where Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. And ask Him. What changes would you like to make in me, Lord? How would you like to empower me? And let His unlimited power begin to move in new ways in you.