Notes and podcasts on the Book of Acts
Updated 2024-05-09: Added podcasts and notes.
Interested in a 7-week journey through Acts?
Notes and podcasts will appear here each week. If you’re in Perth (Western Australia) you can join us live at Riverview Church 7–9 pm if you register (no charge).
Each Wednesday evening we’ll cover 2 chapters, take a coffee break, and then the next 2 chapters. At four chapters each week, we cover the 28 chapters in seven weeks:
Here are the notes and podcasts you need to understand the setting of the Old Testament prophets: Isaiah – Malachi.
[Update 2024-03-21: Full notes and final podcasts added]
The Old Testament concludes with the major and minor prophets. Do you know how each of these books fits into the Bible’s story? I mean, if we don’t know the situation they were addressing, it’s hard to make sense of what God was saying through them.
Here’s your opportunity to put the Prophets in perspective. Over the next six weeks, we’ll provide you with notes and a podcast covering the background of each one so you can read them for yourself.
You can download the full set of notes (60-page PDF), or the weekly notes for the six-week course (held Feb/Mar 2024), with two podcasts each week:
Notes will be available ahead of time, and the podcasts afterwards. The sessions are at Riverview Church in Perth Western Australia on Wednesday evenings.
Continue reading “Formed in God’s Story: Old Testament Prophets”
How do we become blessed? Do the Beatitudes tell me how to get the blessing? Or was Jesus speaking as the king elect, describing how beautiful the community under his heaven-appointed leadership would be?
What are the Beatitudes? What are they calling us to do or be?
Continue reading “The beatific community of the king (podcast)”
A single, congruent narrative runs through the Torah and historical books of the Old Testament.
We’ve seen how:
This is part 3 of a survey of the Torah and historical books, looking at how we are Formed in God’s Story: Genesis–Esther.
We saw that all people belong to God, but in response to the nations going their own way God promised his own nation to show what they’re missing (Genesis).
We saw God freeing Jacob’s descendants from bondage to human rule, forming them into a nation under his leadership through the Sinai covenant (Exodus).
This third part describes life in the kingdom led by the Lord:
So, here are the notes for part 3, covering these four books:
Continue reading “Formed in God’s story: Leviticus – Joshua”
[Updated 2023-05-05: Podcasts added]
God desires to rescue his earthly realm from the powers that oppress us because of lust for power. Pharaoh is the example in Exodus. God saves the descendants of Jacob, forming them in a nation to show the other nations what God intends for us all: how it works when we live under his wise and caring leadership.
But not long after his people agreed to live in covenant relationship with their heavenly sovereign, the whole relationship was compromised by their unfaithfulness. That’s when they discovered the faithfulness of God: his persistent, caring, uncompromising faithfulness kept on rescuing them.
Eventually they provided the holy space for God to live among them and lead them. The final chapter of Exodus celebrates God’s glorious presence as he leads the people who recognize his kingship.
It’s how the world should always have been: God living among us and leading us.
Update 2032-04-29: podcasts added.
If you’ve been around church for any time, you’ve heard of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and his sons. You’ve probably heard debates about creation and evolution. You know about the snake and the fall. You may have heard of Nimrod or the Nephilim, or compared our time to the days of Noah.
These topics are in Genesis, but they are not the message of the book. Why was Genesis written? What is the theme at the core of the book? What is this book doing at the start of the Bible’s narrative?
Genesis is far more than a collection of fascinating stories. There’s something grander going on, a narrative that is greater than the sum of its parts.
So what is it? How does the story work, and where is it going? Here’s the macro story, the big picture of how the story flows in Genesis, what it says about God and us, and how this draws us into the whole Bible narrative:
[Updated: Notes and podcasts added.]
How well could you explain the big arc of the Bible’s narrative? Could you piece together the Old Testament story from its creative beginning in Genesis to the postexilic Persian pressure of Esther’s time?
I’m preparing a sweeping 6-week overview of the Torah and historical books, and you’re invited. If you’re in Perth Western Australia, let’s get together. If not, you can still download the notes each week to catch the wind of what God is doing.
Formed in God’s Story: Genesis to Esther covers the 17 foundational books that provide context for the Psalms and Prophets. This is the backstory for Jesus’ mission (Matthew – John), our mission (Acts – Jude), and the restoration of all things (Revelation).
This is God’s story, but we’re not merely binge watching it. We’re living in it. We’re being formed in God’s story.
The conflict we’re involved in is a rescue mission.
What is spiritual warfare? What are we fighting? How does God fight evil?
What is God’s armour? When did God use armour? How does that train us to use God’s armour?
This podcast (29 minutes) was recorded at Riverview Church (Burswood, Western Australia) 2023-02-12. It’s also on Youtube.
Continue reading “Spiritual warfare (podcast) (Ephesians 6:10–17)”
John 3:16 says God loves the world, but what does that look like? How does the heavenly sovereign demonstrate his unfailing, faithful love for his earthly realm?
We anticipate the arrival of God’s love as we celebrate the Advent season. But what is God’s love? Since God is love, to understand God’s love is to perceive God.
This podcast (20 minutes) looks at the back-story for the claim that God loves his world (John 3:16). God’s faithful, unfailing, committed covenant love has been there since the beginning, and arrived in the person of the Christ.
What God did in sorting out our relationship with him reveals how to approach our relationships with each other.
The final chapter of Philippians calls us to treat each other the way God treated us (Philippians 2:6-11). The reconciling God is our joy, even while we’re still sorting things out. That’s why we rejoice in the Lord always (4:4).
This podcast (22 minutes) was recorded at Riverview Burswood 2022-09-25.
Continue reading “The reconciling gospel (podcast) (Philippians 4:1-4)”
Keep the royal law? Aren’t we under grace? Why would any New Testament book call us to keep the royal law?
The phrase in James 2:8 is literally the law of the king. What king? (Hint: did the writer belong to the royal family?)
What law? Is this something new? Or was it part of the Old Testament law?
James envisages nothing less than the complete restructuring of society. The governance of King Jesus fundamentally changes how humans treat each other, the value we place on each other and how we use the resources God has given us.
In the preceding verses, James spells out exactly what kind of values form the foundation for the kind of community he believed the king had decreed for his kingdom.
This podcast was recorded at the final gathering of Riverview Joondalup, 2022-06-26.
What does it look like to be human?
What is our role in the world? In a word, to be human.
That doesn’t work if the church holds a negative view of what it means to be human.
God doesn’t. He addressed Ezekiel as son of man — literally human descendant. Jesus called himself the son of man more than any other term. God is restoring humanity in Christ. That’s why our role in the world is to be human.
What could be more fulfilling? Being human is what we were designed to be.
So, what’s the problem? Humans have chosen another path, wanting to be superhuman. It makes us subhuman, for seeking power over each other destroys our humanity.
That’s the reason Ezekiel was in Babylon. That’s why Jesus was crucified. That’s the problem all the way back to Cain and Abel. It is challenging to live as a humans when others are being beasts.
This podcast (23 minutes) was recorded at Riverview Joondalup 2022-06-19.
Nehemiah revealed the core kingdom values. His insight is still challenging.
Nehemiah did more than rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. In Chapter 5 he’s discipling the community that will be the new Jerusalem.
Though appointed by the king of Persia, Nehemiah insists they treat each other as their heavenly king expects. More than any of the leaders who preceded him, Nehemiah has the revelation that lays the groundwork for Jesus’ approach to the kingdom of God.
This podcast (27 minutes) was recorded at Riverview Joondalup 2022-06-12.
Continue reading “Building for a new Jerusalem (Nehemiah 5) (podcast)”
What did early churches do when they gathered? The New Testament provides almost no direct description of the elements of their meetings. Why?
The Old Testament gives all the details of the tabernacle and its furnishings, the priests and their garments, the liturgies to be performed and the offerings acceptable to God. Why is the NT missing all these details? What’s different?
This podcast covers the only explicit list of things the early church did when it met:
1 Corinthians 14:26 (my translation, compare NIV)
What are we saying, family? When you gather, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let everything be focused on construction.
In Australia today we’re seeing Christianity shrink back towards being a minority religion. How should we respond? What does God want us to do? How can we help people discover the invisible God?
The Book of Acts traces the development of the church from 120 Jewish believers to Rome. Within 400 years, it had reached Britain, the edge of the Empire. What did Christians do that was so credible while they were still a minority religion? What can we learn from how they followed Jesus?
What is the one thing we should focus on?
How would you describe the church? What does God expect us to be? Where do we focus our limited resources and efforts? These are crucial questions for our time.
This podcast looks at what the word ekklēsia meant before Christians used it to describe their meetings. Our identity is the people who gather around King Jesus. Our mission is implementing God’s government in his world. So, what should we do?
Who makes God happy? The sinners? The righteous? What do you think?
Jesus answered that question with three stories. We love the parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost (prodigal) son. But did we hear the answer he gave?
Walking with Jesus, and sitting at his table. Two of Luke’s metaphors for sharing life with our Lord.
Here’s a brief podcast in the lead-up to Easter: ten minutes, on the Emmaus Road.
Mark’s Gospel reveals two things about Jesus:
The pivot point is Peter’s declaration of Jesus’ identity (Mark 8:29). Immediately Jesus turns our attention to how Messiah’s mission will play out — his role and our role in his mission.
This 25-minute podcast traces the laser-sharp focus of the shortest Gospel. Recorded at Riverview Joondalup 2022-03-13.
Seeking the kingdom 