Act 8 Called To Be Church

In the 1800s a Market Revolution began, changing the way in which America operated and in the midst of all that was a Second Great Awakening, causing people to once again, question their religious beliefs and practices. Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz tell the story of Robert Matthews, or the Prophet Matthias and his followers. Matthias had an unconventional childhood, he became an orphan at a young age and was raised by church elders. He worked under one of the elders to learn the carpenter’s craft. He easily found work but had trouble keeping it because he was always preaching at his fellow workers about their sinful ways. Matthias was eager to make good but continually fell into misfortunes, “which led him on a prolonged and erratic religious journey” (49). The Kingdom of Matthias gained and lost members, had changes in beliefs, and was full of ever changing marriages. Although looking back on it now, Matthias’s messages and beliefs seem almost laughable, but at they time his followers found his message, ministry, and lifestyle very compelling.

Acts 8:26-40 teaches us a variety of things about mission as well as evangelism’s role within it. It reminds us whose mission it is, that radical inclusion is anticipated, that evangelism is an important aspect of but is not in itself mission, and that the Holy Spirit plays a fundamental and essential role in mission and effective evangelism.

(1) My conversion experience happened at a relatively young age. I remember I was four years old. I was sitting in our Sunday Evening service and instead of coloring or playing a game I listened to our Pastor's sermon. He was talking about salvation. All I could think about was I didn't want to go to hell! That evening before I went to bed, I asked my parents about heaven, hell, and this man named Jesus I had heard so much about. That night I accepted Christ as my savior!

Acts of the Apostles chronicles the rapid advancement of the Gospel by way of the gift of the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles: The Charismatic Community in Mission” takes into account the narratives succeeding Pentecost including Spirit Baptisms from Samaria to Ephesus (Acts

The message of my work is to try and highlight the importance of showing how a person’s faith can have a positive and life-changing impact on their lives. I have done this by looking into the lives of two early Christian missionaries and portray how they would 've felt about their journeys, who they met and what they were teaching others. In doing so, I try to portray, to the best of my ability and knowledge, the apostle 's thoughts and just how strong their conviction and faith in God was.

I will dedicate the remaining words in this paper to my attempt to reason how these conversions could produce such spectacular and beneficial results. I believe the answer can be encapsulated in one word; hope. Christianity gives hope to those who believe its message. In an attempt to show why it gives hope, I will attempt to provide the fundamental beliefs of Christianity in a few short sentences.

The story in Acts 8:26-40, which hold what could be a vital point of the first half of Acts of Apostle, give an account of the baptism of an unusual character presented in Acts 8:27 as an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopian. The biblical character exemplifies in concrete form as multiple dissimilarities of class, race, gender, and perhaps religion and sexuality as well.

The unique experience of the Jerusalem church at Pentecost in Acts 2 occurred in similarly public and significant ways for

(Acts 8:31). And invited Philip to climb up and sit in the carriage with him. Philip used that opportunity to tell the God News about Jesus. He was convinced and believed in the person of our Lord Jesus-Christ.

At the age of 18 he decided to commit his life to God. While he was praying in the catacombs at St Sebastiano a globe of light entered his mouth and moved to his heart. St. Philip

The Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, is a central figure within both Christian tradition and New Testament thought and writing. With such a crucial place, it is vital that we come to understand more of his life and thinking, as well as the world in which he and, more specifically, his theology were shaped. With this in mind, this essay will seek to explore Paul’s conversion and call experience as understood from Acts, and his personal references to it, drawing from them the ways in which this time was significant for Paul’s theological thinking, as expressed in his letters and work. To achieve this we will begin by addressing the call and/or conversion debate, arguing that the term ‘conversion and call’ best encapsulates

The parallel relations to true conversion with Simon and the Ethiopian eunuch’s faith were in total opposite of each other. Simon’s conversion was only for personal gain of his current profession. And that he was caught up in the emotions of the moment and went through the procedure without truly believing in his heart. It states in Act 8:12-22, that he believed at first, was baptized, but never saved. However, with the eunuch’s conversion, he had a genuine repentance, because he already had the knowledge of religion, but further seeks God in truth, which leads him to repentance, received baptism, and gets saved with having the evidence of the Holy Spirit.

Many say the faith experience of this first apostolic group was unique; however, the other accounts in Acts also display distinction between conversion and baptism in the Spirit. (Acts 8, 19), although they may occur with little to no time separation in some instances (Acts 10).

One experience of conversion that I had in the past, was when my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, and everyone in the family was extremely worried. He was very important to the family because he had many various activities that he does for us such as cook and prepare our meals, take me and my sister to school when both of my parents are working. As time went by, my grades were going downhill because I worried about my grandfather and my parents were stressing out. My dad had to work night shift so he could alternate with my mom to take him to the cancer center for his daily treatments. My whole life became stressful, so I started praying to God more often. I prayed before I went to bed and to school. I asked God to give my grandfather

Each of the four Gospels contains points in ecclesiology. In the Great Commission, Jesus’ last instruction to the Apostles is to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching people (Matthew 28:19-20). For Jesus’ mission to continue and for his Church to grow, discipleship is necessary. Discipleship is a prominent theme in all four Gospels, for purposes of this essay, only the Gospels of John and Luke-Acts will be analyzed. The similarities regarding discipleship in these Gospels include images of the net and fishing, and the sheep/shepherd/sheepfold. The differences include the preparing of the Twelve to carry on Jesus' ministry in Luke, and service to the community and passing of authority in John's Gospel.