Jesus’ statement in Acts 1:8, that his disciples would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth; created reader expections that we have been following throughout the book of Acts. So far, everything has happened just as Jesus said it would happen. And now we’ve come [...]]]> http://www.toddjana.com/to-the-ends-of-the-earth/feed/ 0 http://www.toddjana.com/in-judea-and-samaria/ http://www.toddjana.com/in-judea-and-samaria/#comments Fri, 05 Aug 2011 08:16:14 +0000 Todd Patterson http://www.toddjana.com/?p=2265

In Jesus’ programmatic statement of Acts 1:8 he says that his disciples will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We’ve already looked at their witness in Jerusalem, to the Jews and in this post we look at Judea and Samaria. Of course, as I [...]]]> http://www.toddjana.com/in-judea-and-samaria/feed/ 0 http://www.toddjana.com/in-jerusalem/ http://www.toddjana.com/in-jerusalem/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:36:14 +0000 Todd Patterson http://www.toddjana.com/?p=1859 cc licensed flickr photo shared by Lawrence OP

After the Pentecost we read in the book of Acts about the beginning of the apostles’ ministry which takes place in Jerusalem, to the Jews. In this post we’ll look at four key elements or themes that are important for the whole book and at the [...]]]> http://www.toddjana.com/in-jerusalem/feed/ 0 http://www.toddjana.com/sinai-pentecost/ http://www.toddjana.com/sinai-pentecost/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:58:16 +0000 Todd Patterson http://www.toddjana.com/?p=1784 cc licensed flickr photo shared by Karl Karl

Luke set our expectations for the book of Acts in 1:8. That’s where he indicated that the disciples are going to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. But first, Jesus told the disciples they would be [...]]]> http://www.toddjana.com/sinai-pentecost/feed/ 0 http://www.toddjana.com/continuing-the-ministry-of-jesus/ http://www.toddjana.com/continuing-the-ministry-of-jesus/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:19:58 +0000 Todd Patterson http://www.toddjana.com/?p=1503

As we begin to read the book of Acts along the lines of story we want to continually keep in mind that we are reading from expectation to fulfillment (or from tension to resolution).

There are two aspects to that kind of reading. The first aspect is that we always keep in [...]]]> http://www.toddjana.com/continuing-the-ministry-of-jesus/feed/ 2 http://www.toddjana.com/the-beginning-of-acts/ http://www.toddjana.com/the-beginning-of-acts/#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 02:21:56 +0000 Todd Patterson http://www.toddjana.com/?p=1422

In the introductory post of this series on The Story of Acts I tried to explain how plots work, that is, that they move from expectation to fulfillment or from tension to resolution. In the second post I used Gen 2:18-25 as an example of How to Read a Story.

In this post we’re [...]]]> http://www.toddjana.com/the-beginning-of-acts/feed/ 3 http://www.toddjana.com/how-to-read-a-story/ http://www.toddjana.com/how-to-read-a-story/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:45:44 +0000 Todd Patterson http://www.toddjana.com/?p=1180

In the last post I introduced this series on reading the book of Acts as a story, or, according to its plot. Even though everyone knows how to read a story we’re not used to reading the Bible that way and so in this post I’m going to offer Genesis 2:18-25 as an example [...]]]> http://www.toddjana.com/how-to-read-a-story/feed/ 0 http://www.toddjana.com/story-of-acts/ http://www.toddjana.com/story-of-acts/#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 04:42:17 +0000 Todd Patterson http://www.toddjana.com/?p=1089

Starting this Sunday and lasting until the middle of July I will be teaching three Sunday school classes on the Book of Acts. With each class I only have four weeks to go through the whole book so I thought maybe I could supplement the classes with some blog posts on the same theme. [...]]]> http://www.toddjana.com/story-of-acts/feed/ 1