Over the last several months we have focused on the conversion stories and lessons we could draw from them as we went through the book of Acts. Today we conclude this study, and I wanted to reflect on some of the issues and blessings and calls that we encountered along the way. I’d like to get your mind going that direction by reminding us all of some of the key passages that have marked our study.

• “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
• “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”…Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:36-28, 41)
• “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:12-13)
• Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. (Acts 8:4)
• Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. (Acts 11:20-21)
• Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11)
• “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’” (Acts 17:27-28)
• “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28)
• “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense…About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me…” (Acts 22:1-3ff.)