Lessons from the Conversion of Apollos

There are several accounts of people being converted to Christ in the book of Acts. One such example was the conversion of Apollos in Ephesus.

Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue.

But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 18:24-28).

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Book Review: Coming To Christ

Coming To Christ: A Study of the Detailed Conversions in ActsI recently finished reading Aaron Erhardt’s book, Coming to Christ: A Study of the Detailed Conversions in Acts. As you can probably gather from the title, this book examines the conversion accounts in the book of Acts in order to show the consistent pattern for God’s plan of salvation.

Aaron does a good job explaining these passages in a way that is easy to understand. The Scriptures teach the essentiality of baptism for salvation and Aaron points this out in every case. Of course, much of the religious world denies that baptism is necessary for salvation. So Aaron also has a chapter addressing several arguments that are made against baptism.

The material in this book would be good for anyone who needs to learn what the Bible says about obeying the gospel. It is also good for Christians so that they might be prepared to teach others who are outside of the body of Christ and be equipped to show them what God requires of man.

You can learn more about this book by visiting the author’s website: Erhardt Publications.

Repent and Be Converted

After Peter healed the lame man and had the opportunity to teach the crowd that had gathered, he told them, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19, NKJV).

Most of the denominational world believes that conversion is necessary for salvation. Peter plainly affirmed this as he told the people here that the blotting out of their sins was dependent upon them being converted. But what conversion was Peter talking about here? This is where you will begin to get some disagreement. Is one converted when he prays a “sinner’s prayer” and invites Jesus into his heart? Is he converted when he makes a verbal confession that he believes that Jesus is Lord? Or is there something else that Peter has in mind?

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What Happened After Saul’s Conversion?

Saul escaping Damascus in a basket

We often talk about the conversion of Saul – later known as the apostle Paul – because of the important lessons to be found in it about how one becomes a Christian. But what about what happened after Saul’s conversion? There are important lessons here as well. Let us look at what Saul did following his conversion.
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The Purpose of Preaching

Man with Open Bible

From the beginning of the New Testament we read about preaching. First we see John the Baptist “preaching in the wilderness of Judea” (Matthew 3:1). A little while later “Jesus began to preach” (Matthew 4:17) and went “throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom” (Matthew 4:23). Jesus commanded His disciples on different occasions to go out and preach the gospel (Luke 9:1-6; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8). Throughout the New Testament, this is what we see – the gospel being preached. Though men may see this as foolish, this is what God desires (1 Corinthians 1:18-21).

God designed preaching to accomplish certain things. Let us notice the purpose of preaching.
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