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Topic: discipleship

Mary and Martha were blessed to have Jesus and his crew stop by their home in Bethany. Martha was distracted by all things hosting, while Mary was distracted by Jesus' words. She sat at his feet and soaked it all in, while Martha fumed. They had to say goodbye to Jesus that night, but those of us who have the Holy Spirit never have to have to hang up the phone. Abide means remain. Remain means don't hang up. Stay in constant connection all day long, like a branch never unplugs from the Vine.
Paul has a situation in Corinth where a man had sinned against someone in the church. He lets them know the sin isn't just against him, but against everyone. He begged them to deal with the situation so the man could be restored. He also encouraged them to forgive him, so that Satan didn't get a foothold in the church.
Jesus made six statements in the gospels of Luke and John about discipleship: three from the negative, saying, if this or this is true you cannot be my disciple, and three from John in the positive, saying, this is how people will know you are my disciple. We put those six statements together to derive a working definition of a disciple of Jesus.
In one final sermon from the Acts series, we go back to the beginning and tie everything together in one simple little bow: We proclaim the kingdom of God by proclaiming Jesus – crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended.
A riot breaks out in Ephesus, because so many people are being converted to follow Jesus that it is affecting sales at the local shrine shop. Paul heads for Jerusalem and ends up in city called Troas, where a sleepy young man falls from a third story window and dies.
Priscilla and Aquila listen to a young man named Apollos speaking in the synagogue about Jesus, but the message was not quite complete. What he said was correct, but it wasn't complete – like stopping with Jesus' death and resurrection and leaving out the Holy Spirit. So they invited him over and explained "The Rest of the Story."
Paul and Silas visit two cities (Thessalonica and Berea) and receive two very different welcomes from the religious people in those areas. So the question remains – do we allow traditions and "that's the way we've always done it" to inform what's true? Or are we willing to question even our traditions, and search the scriptures for answers?
Paul and Silas head north to catch up with the new believers in Galatia and Phrygia. Then apparently, they decide to not go home yet, but keep going further west. But, in one of the strangest lines of Acts, the Holy Spirit said no to Asia, and no to Bithynia. Paul gets a vision about heading to Macedonia, and the crew springs into action.