Omega Church NZ

After the martyrdom of Stephen, Saul became more bold, more zealous to obliterate the name of Jesus Christ. It brought a clear separation between the old Jewish religion and the Church. The apostles are yet to get the vision of preaching the gospel to the whole world. So, the Lord used persecution to spread the gospel. The Greek speaking Jewish converts like Stephen, Philip God beg

Stephen is accused in chapter 6. He gives a lengthy defence when he was asked by the High Priest, who was the same high priest who condemned Jesus to be crucified. Did he really defend himself? or did he turn the tables on their head. Several themes are intermingled: Israel's rejection of Joseph, Moses, Jesus, Stephen himself; God is not limited to reveal himself only in the la

Qualifications of apostles is they were full of wisdom and Holy Spirit. You see this in chapter 2, 4 and 6. When the dispute arose about distribution of food to the widows, apostles asked them to present seven men full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit. They presented Stephen, Philip and five others. Stephen is the first to be mentioned because Luke is going to talk about him at length

After the judgement of the Lord on Ananias and Sapphire people were afraid to join the apostles. But they held them in high esteem. Those who are genuine in their faith were being added to the church. The people swing to the other extreme and bring the sick and laid them on the street so that Peter's shadow might fall on them and heal them! The scripture affirms that "all

Joseph Barnabas sold his property and brought the money and put it at the feet of Apostle Peter. Ananias and Sapphira wanted to do the same to get same recognition but wanted to keep back some of the proceeds. Peter confronted Ananias with the truth. When Ananias was exposed, he had a heart attack and fell down dead. Ooops! Please stay tuned in. We pray this teaching blesses you!

v23 Peter and John went back to their own people. That was the group not consisting of 3000 or 5000 people. That is the core group of praying people. That is the centre of power. We might think of White House as a place of power or some capital city of a country. But, that band of praying people for the centre of power. Their unselfish prayer moved the hand of God and the place whe

If we read 2 Samuel 23, we see a list of mighty men who were in David's service. How did they become mighty men? When they came to him they were destitutes, in debt and threatened by king Saul. Because of their association with David, they were gradually changed into mighty men. That is what happened to the apostles. They were recognised as men who were with Jesus. That account

How did Peter and John heal the crippled man? He said, why are you astonished? As though we have made this man whole by our power or godliness. He moved their attention from themselves to Jesus Christ. By faith in His name you see this man healed. There is power in the name of Jesus. Secondly, we who believe are in union with Jesus Christ. That union is just not positional, but it

Acts 2:43 many miracles were done through the hands of the apostles. So, in Acts 3, Luke gives us such an event which was significant and had more impact and consequences. He was born crippled and his family would set him down at the stairway to the temple called 'Beautiful'. Peter and John spoke to him and Peter spoke those memorable words, "silver and gold have I non

Most of the religious leaders were Sadducees who did not believe in resurrection, angels etc. So they wanted to trap Jesus and posed a hypothetical question. Jesus responded saying you neither know the power of God not do you understand scriptures. St.Paul has much to say about resurrection but it all came from his encounter with resurrected Jesus. Please stay tuned in. We pray thi