Original subtitles

Civilotive

Well, we are in our 17 of our Learn the Bible in 24 Hours, and we're going to focus this

session on the book of Acts.

And I'll call it with my tongue in my cheek a little bit, Luke Volume 2.

Luke wrote two books, the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, which follows naturally

in many ways from his Gospel.

The New Testament, of course, has five historical books opening the New Testament.

The Old Testament had five books of Moses, which opened its structure, and the New Testament

has five narrative books, the four Gospels and the book of Acts.

And again, I said the book of Acts really serves as Luke Volume 2, in a sense.

And that's followed by epistles, which are the interpretive sessions, and we'll get

to those, of course, later in climaxing with the book of Revelation, which wraps up the

whole Bible in a comprehensive way.

But the book of Acts is our focus tonight.

Sometimes, in some of your Bible, it's called the Acts of the Apostles.

Well, if that was true, it's a little puzzling because you've only got primarily Peter and

Paul, and the first half of the book, major sections of the book being Peter and the second

section being Paul.

But it could be more properly titled the Acts of the Holy Spirit, because there's much

more going on than just Peter and Paul with Philip and some other things.

But you may recall as we looked at the design of the four Gospels, we recognize that each

of the four main writers had a specific theme, a specific focus, a specific approach.

Matthew presenting Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel, a very Jewish perspective, starting

his genealogy with Abraham and going right on through finishing with the resurrection,

which is a very, again, a very Jewish focus of attention.

Mark, who is really Peter's secretary, wrote emphasizing his servitude, and he focused

on what Jesus, not what he said, but what he did.

It's almost like a shooting script, if you study it carefully.

But it finishes with the ascension.

Luke being a doctor focuses on Christ's humanity, the Son of Man.

And his genealogy starts with Adam and goes right on through through Mary.

We covered all of that.

And he closes his Gospel with the promise of the Holy Spirit, how that when Jesus would

leave the Holy, the comforter would come.

And as you realize, what that really does, it deliberately sets up the book of Acts.

And John, as the fourth Gospel, focuses not on what Jesus said or what he did or what

he felt, but who he was and the Son of God.

And he finishes his Gospel with the promise of Christ's return, which is interesting because

he sets up his Gospel, in a sense, he sets up his sequel, the book of Revelation, the

return of Christ.

So again, John focuses on who Jesus was and Luke on the Holy Spirit, which of course

sets up the book of Acts.

It's interesting that Jesus in the upper room, John 14, announced that the comforter would

come.

In John 14, verse 26, Jesus said, but the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the father will

send in my name.

He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have

said unto you.

So this is a pre-announcement, an anticipative announcement in the upper room.

And he continues a couple chapters later.

He also amplifies his mission.

Jesus says, howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all

truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall

he speak, and he will show you things to come.

So here again, Jesus is doing several things.

He's announcing the primary mission of the Holy Spirit.

Don't be confused by this.

The Holy Spirit is very active all through the Scripture.

The first quotes of God involve the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God moved or brooded above the waters in Genesis, in the second verse, the

first chapter.

So the Holy Spirit is very active, but he comes in a very special way to accomplish

these things.

And he will guide you into all truth.

He shall not speak of himself.

You know, it's fascinating to notice throughout the Bible whenever there's a type or a model,

like Abraham being the father, and Isaac being the son, the son being offered, and so forth.

It's always interesting that the Holy Spirit is always in the role of an unnamed servant.

In Genesis 24, where Abraham commissions his business partner to go and get a bride for

Isaac.

Again, we have Abraham the role of the father.

We have this guy unnamed there, but if you go several chapters earlier, you'll find out

his name is Eliezer, which means comforter.

But it's interesting, he's always an unnamed servant in the Book of Ruth.

When Ruth is introduced to Boaz, Ruth is going to be the Gentile bride of the kinsman

Redeemer, Boaz, who introduces Ruth to Boaz an unnamed servant?

It's fascinating to notice the Holy Spirit when he's in a typological model of some kind,

it's always an unnamed servant.

And why?

Because of John 1613, he shall not speak of himself.

But what's over here?

He shall hear that shall he speak.

He will show you things to come.

It's also a pre-endorsement of the New Testament, which will come out of all of this.

And it's interesting how in John 16, Jesus emphasizes the apparent mutually exclusiveness

in some sense.

For this next phase, Jesus announcing, of course, in the upper room, John 14 through 16 being

that, in fact, through 17, of the upper room discourse, says, it is expedient for you,

speaking of disciples, that I go away.

For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you.

But if I depart, I will send them unto you.

Now, we can't pretend to really understand the dynamics here, except it's clear that

there's some kind of exchange going on.

Jesus would leave in order to make it possible for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell among

us.

So there's a concept here of locality.

When Jesus was on the earth in his ministry, he had locality.

You could touch and feel him.

He was in a specific location, geophysically.

And it's interesting that by his going away in the Holy Spirit coming, the Holy Spirit

can be everywhere at one time, among all of us, not in just one place.

So it's interesting to see the differences there.

But so the acts of the Holy Spirit will involve a number of things.

We've got the ascension.

We'll see Pentecost, which as we would call it, the Feast of Shavot, the birth of the

church, major feature.

The outrage against Stephen will occur.

Philip and the Ethiopian treasure, we'll talk about that because most people don't know

the background there.

The call of Saul, if you will, or Paul.

And we've got 28 thrilling chapters here that are going to include all these.

Peter's vision at Cornelius that he is introduced.

And here's a Jewish apostle introduced to the Gentile world by a centurion, or a vision

through the centurion, which of course opens the mission to the Gentiles.

And then this very interesting council in Jerusalem.

And this whole book, it's a shame we have to survey it so superficially because it's

full of intrigues, violent mobs, blood oath alliances, people, group of 40 guys swearing

to the death to kill Paul.

These guys took what they were doing very seriously on both sides.

And all kinds of corrupt officials and so forth.

Jail breaks, shipwrecks, magicians, sorcerers, raising from the dead, all these things are

going on in a very interesting book, a very dynamic, dramatic book.

But it's also a very key book.

It's the bridge, if you will, from the history to the interpretive epistles.

It's the gateway to the epistles.

But it also highlights the major turning point of world history.

And we'll have the first missionary journey that Paul takes on to the Galatia.

The second missionary journey, which will go to Greece and start to open up Europe.

And then the third missionary journey where he reviews all of that.

And we'll find out these outcries against this incredible human being that we call Paul.

Before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish officials, before the governor of Felix, before Festus,

before King of Gripper, and ultimately appealing to the leader of the world, Caesar himself.

And so Acts will conclude about that time.

And when he goes to Rome.

And we'll talk some of the interesting things about the shipwreck.

That was not the only shipwreck, by the way.

It's probably the fourth shipwreck that he had.

But he was probably bad news for a ship captain.

Paul is a board, you know.

Oh, anyway.

I'm kidding.

Acts chapter 1 really deals with the departure of Jesus Christ.

It deals with the ascension.

The gospels take you up to this, but this really records the post-resurrection instructions

and where they are instructed to await the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Of course records the ascension from Mount of Olives, where a cloud comes down and receives

him.

And there's two angels.

It's interesting how these angels always seem to be in pairs.

There's a pair of angels that destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

There's a pair of angels here at the ascension and so forth.

Two angels confirm that he will return just like he left.

And in like manner is the phrase in your English Bible.

And this is also described in Zechariah, chapters 12 through 14.

There's a great deal of visibility.

In fact there's seven times as many verses about the second coming of Jesus Christ as

there are with the first.

And so it's a very, very major part of Scripture.

But now they have of course 11 in the key group, the inside group are 11 because Judas

is history.

And there are about 120 present at the meeting.

But the inside 11 they decide to cast lots to elect a replacement for Judas.

And the lots of cast and a guy by the name of Matthias is selected.

And this leads to some disputes among scholars.

There are many that believe that that was probably a mistake.

It was a self-appointed task they took on for themselves.

Many feel that the 12th apostle would be Paul.

Paul would be the natural replacement.

There are many Bible teachers that emphasize that and they may be correct.

However there are other scholars which point out that the apostles were Jewish and primarily

ministered to Israel.

That Paul's distinctive role was to be called as the apostle to the Gentiles.

The door to the Gentiles will be opened by Peter, an incident with Peter in chapter

10.

But the real, clearly the clear mandate for the Gentile world was Paul.

So whether the 12 really were, there's a lot of debate as to just, you know, was Matthias

really the legitimate choice or not.

And not a big deal but you'll find different scholars have slightly different views.

But one of the key verses in the first chapter of the book of Acts is the marching orders

where Jesus says to them, you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon

you, which of course will occur in the following chapter in chapter 2.

And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria

and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Now what's interesting about this is there's a sequence here.

Jerusalem being the local scene that they're at right now, then all Judea, visualize that

as a larger ring, all Judea, then extending that even further is Samaria, which is sort

of the half Jewish area.

Samaria, Samaritan is being looked at as only ethically impure in that sense.

And then of course, fourthly, the uttermost parts of the earth.

There are many ministries that look at this as their growth charter.

You bloom where you're planted, where you start, then as you grow you take the next

neighborhood, then you grow and finally to all the earth.

And so, but clearly in Acts chapter 2 we have the big event, the Holy Spirit descends in

a very visible way at the Feast of Shavot or the Feast of Weeks.

And it's a very interesting, it's a very overlooked feast.

Of the seven feasts of Moses, there were three that were required attendants of every

able-bodied Jew in Jerusalem, if you could do it.

And the Passover, actually it's Feast of Unleavened Bed, but generically the Passover

season is one of them.

The Feast of Tabernacles at the end, and there's a strange one in between, the Feast of Shavot.

And it's the only one that has eleven bread involved.

It's a very peculiar, it's obviously a predictive feast of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It's fulfilled on that very day.

And as the, as the, as the meat, the Holy Spirit visibly descends like flames of fire, and

everybody, all the people there from all over the world hears them speak in their own tongues.

And the, they're really quite disturbed, something very supernatural is going on.

And Peter explains it by quoting from Joel chapter 2.

It's the birth of the church.

This is where the mystical church begins.

This is one of the distinctions you need to emphasize in your own Bible studies to recognize

that not all people that are saved are necessarily in the same category.

There are people saved all through the Old Testament, obviously, and there are also people

that are saved during the period we live in today.

But there are some very important distinctives between those two, and there's going to be

again a third group, in effect, those that are saved after the church is gathered.

You need to understand as you study ecclesiology, the study of this peculiar mystical thing

we call glibly the church.

We're obviously not talking about the physical edifices of churches.

We're talking about the, the, this, this very privileged assembly that you and I are part

of if you're, we're in Christ.

We enjoy privileges and blessings that are unique to us that were not available to the

people in the Old Testament.

Very distinctive.

And we all try to get across in his epistles.

We often don't understand his answers because we don't understand the questions he's dealing

with.

And so be sensitive to that in any case.

Israel and the church are not the same thing.

They're both distinctive.

They have different origins, different missions, different destinies.

You need to understand that.

Check it out.

Well we will go through each of the chapters, the 20 chapters in Acts, but they're, chapter

seven of Acts is an incredibly interesting instructive chapter.

It's basically this young kid, Stephen, is before the Sanhedrin, the most august body

in the Judaism.

And he gives, this kid gives these elders a history lesson.

In this speech he reviews the history of Israel.

This is interesting for several reasons.

Let me give you two.

One is he mentions things in his speech.

He makes comments in effect about the Old Testament that you will not find in the Old

Testament.

They're insights here that are unique to this chapter that he unravels a few riddles for

us by his perspective.

The other reason it's interesting is to figure out where he's headed.

They do not let him finish his speech.

Before he's finished they take him out and stone him to death.

It's interesting to study his speech, outline it for yourself on a piece of paper sometime,

to see where he was headed.

And I'll give you a few clues.

First of all, there's a place where he talks about the Pharaoh that of the Exodus.

He mentions how Joseph is down there and in charge and all that, but then another Pharaoh

that knew not Joseph rises.

Now in the English when we say another, we just mean another.

In the Greek they have two different words.

If I want one of you to give me another pencil exactly like the one I have, I just broke

it, I want another one like the one I've got, you see I would use the word alos for another.

If I really want a different kind of pencil, I've got a red one and a blue one or something,

then I would use the word heteros, a different kind.

It's like saying another of a different kind, the first one is another of the same kind.

It's provocative in the Greek of Stephen's discussion of Pharaoh.

He uses the word heteros, which means the Pharaoh that succeeded the Pharaoh that was

favorable to Joseph was a totally different kind of guy.

That puts us on the alert when you get to, it turns out that the Pharaoh that of the

Exodus was not Egyptian.

He was an Assyrian.

You will not find this, I don't believe, in any study of Egyptology because they all

presume, they make presumptions, there are some, the recent scholars that have just

shredded the traditional chronology of the Egyptian Pharaohs.

You discover if you get into this, start studying it, all the 25th dynasty or whatever, these

are scholastic labels.

They were not necessarily clear from the dynasties of the time.

They're retrospective scholastic categories.

There are some studies now that show that if you analyze what we think we know about

the Pharaohs carefully, they do fit astonishingly with the Bible.

And one of the embarrassing things you've done in biblical studies in the past, the Egyptian

lineup chronologies and the biblical chronologies don't seem to mesh at all.

Well, that's because of poor scholarship of the past.

There's some very radical studies that are kicking that hand, if you will.

But Isaiah chapter 50 verse 4 tells us that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Assyrian.

Pharaoh was a title.

He wasn't always Egyptian.

A very important Pharaoh we're going to talk about when you get to Acts chapter 8 is, we'll

get into that there, but something else, we also discover in the first few verses of

Stephen's talk, we discover that Abraham didn't obey God the first time.

God had said to Abraham, get you out of the calities and so you read Genesis carefully,

the illusion there is something God had said earlier.

He's supposed to leave his family, he didn't, he just moved up a river.

And that is another fascinating aspect to Abraham's life that he emerges out of Stephen's

summary here.

But something else, a large overview, what Stephen's really highlighting is your study

of his talk is that Israel's history has always been a pattern of failures.

Abraham didn't obey God initially, he finally, when his father dies, then he does obey, he

had been told to leave.

It was a second time, so to speak, that he doesn't write.

Joseph was rejected by his brothers.

Moses was rejected by Israel at first when he killed the Egyptian.

It was a second time that they accepted his leadership.

The law, the first ten commandments were destroyed.

God had to make a second set of them.

And they'll always just all through their history, when they get to Kedish Barnia, they

don't accept the spot, you know, the challenge to go forward.

So they're condemned, so to speak, into spending 40 years wandering in the wilderness.

It's the second time that they finally go through under Joshua and so forth.

His pattern is that they always blow at the first time they make it on the second.

And this builds right up to the point he's talking about, your Messiah came and you've

crucified him.

What's his point?

He's coming back.

See, there's a second, again, it follows the pattern, that the second time he comes, they'll

accept him and so forth.

So you can go through that on your own studies.

There are some interesting parallels.

The first twelve chapters of the book of Acts, Jerusalem is at the center.

Peter is the chief figure in the first twelve chapters.

It reaches as far as the outreach of the gospel goes out as far as Samaria.

The word is rejected by the Jews of the homeland in Israel.

Peter is imprisoned.

There's a judgment on Herod.

In chapter 13 and following, you'll discover that the center of the action is no longer

Jerusalem, it's Antioch is at the center of the Gentile outreach.

Peter's no longer the chief figure.

We don't hear much about him after that, occasionally.

Paul is the chief player in the last half of the book.

The outreach here goes all the way to Rome.

And the word is rejected now by the Jews of the dispersion.

And Paul is imprisoned, not Peter, and the judgment on the Jews.

So interesting parallels.

There's another way to parallel the book of Acts as you go through it.

First half of the book, Peter is the key figure.

His first sermon, the lame man being healed, Simon the sorcerer, the influence of a shadow

and laying on of hands, resulting in miracles.

They even try to worship him in chapter 10.

Tabith is raised from the dead in chapter 9.

He's imprisoned in chapter 12.

Paul is the key player in the rest of the book, virtually the last half.

First sermon in chapter 13.

Again a lame man is healed.

There's a sorcerer prominent in chapter 13.

Again we have the influence of a handkerchief or laying on of hands in chapter 19 equivalent

to the previous ones.

Paul they try to worship in chapter 14.

Yoticus is raised from the dead having fallen out of a third story window.

And Paul is finally imprisoned in chapter, at the end.

So there's interesting parallelism between these two careers.

But let's take a look at it.

Let's take another look at it geographically.

Let's talk about Philip.

He's one of the, after the stoning of Stephen, the believers in Jerusalem were scattered.

And Philip was one of the seven helpers, or deacons if you will, of the early church.

And he goes to Samaria and many people are healed in Samaria.

And it's up north, it's a marginal country from a Jewish perspective.

And it's up there that Simon the magician comes to faith.

Down in Jerusalem there are several, namely Peter and John, are surprised that Samaritans

are accepting Jesus.

They're excited about that.

They go up to check it out.

And they do, and do, and find that these Samaritans are very enthusiastically accepting Christ.

But they also recognize this guy, Simon, who was a magician, apparently he had some repute

at the time, who became a believer.

They had to admonish him because he offered them money for the Holy Spirit.

He saw they had something, he wanted something, they offered them money.

So we have the first occasion of TV evangelists where they do it for money.

I'm being facetious here a little bit, a little cynical perhaps.

By the way, Peter and John do investigate and they get good news, although they did admonish

Simon.

But now right in the middle of this revival, so to speak, Philip is sent by God down to

the Jerusalem to Gaza road, there's a road from Jerusalem down to Gaza.

And Philip has pulled out of this revival and sent down there to meet of all people

an Ethiopian treasurer.

He is on his way home confused.

He apparently has gone to Jerusalem to worship the Messiah.

Apparently finds out he's been killed, whatever he's confused.

He's on his way home now confused.

And we have this interesting incident where Philip approaches him and says, do you understand

what you're reading?

How can I, unless somebody helps me?

And it turns out he's reading from Isaiah 53, and I'm going to suggest 52 and 53 for

some reasons.

There are, to really understand what's going on here, you should be acquaint yourself with

some of the theories about the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant disappeared sometime after the Babylonian captivity, it seems to

have disappeared from history.

There are about six different theories as to what happened and where it is, they're all

conjectural.

The most interesting one is one that has been disregarded by many scholars because

it's accompanied with some non-biblical legends.

To look at history here a little bit, see, let me back up.

We're going to talk about is it possible the Ark of the Covenant could be down in Ethiopia.

Most people reject that the Ethiopians believe that they're guarding a relic, that they are

destined to present to the Messiah on Mount Zion.

That's guarded to the present day in a special compound in Aksim.

They believe the way it got there is a way that you can dispute biblically, and so most

people dismiss the fact that what they have is really the Ark.

What they overlook is they may have the relic by a path that they didn't understand.

They have a different legend they believe, don't go into that here.

We do know from 2 Kings 21 that Manasseh, who took over after Hezekiah, tried to destroy

Judaism. He tried to destroy all copies of the Torah, reading it was a capital crime.

He tried to destroy Judaism from end to end.

During that time the Levites, to protect the Ark of the Covenant, got it out of the temple,

out of town, out of the country.

And apparently they sought protection under Pharaoh Neko of Egypt.

After Manasseh comes Josiah, a young guy who discovers an overlooked copy of the Torah,

reads it and realizes how far they've fallen.

So he institutes a whole revival and he instructs the Levites to return the Ark to Israel, in

fact to the temple, to the holy volleys.

It doesn't say they complied.

He just asserts that they should.

A few verses later, this is on 2 Chronicles 35, a few verses later, Pharaoh Neko of Egypt

is taking up arms against the Assyrian Empire, which apparently is decaying and it's going

to fall in a few more years.

Josiah takes up arms against Pharaoh Neko.

That puzzles any reader, but it also puzzles Pharaoh Neko. He says, what are you doing?

I'm doing what God told me to do.

But most people don't realize is that Pharaoh Neko was Ethiopian.

He was the 25th, what's called the Ethiopian dynasty.

Josiah goes against him and he gets killed.

But from that point on, there is a traceable record of a relic of some kind that Tabernacle

was set up on Elephantine Island, which at that time was the capital of Egypt, the middle

of the Nile, at the border of Upper Nor Egypt.

And for two centuries, the Tabernacle was there.

The ark is transferred from Elephantine Island to Tonnekirkus Island, which is on Lake Tana

in Ethiopia, and it stays there for eight centuries.

In fact, there are even records in the Ethiopian Bible of Joseph and Mary in the infant, Jesus,

visiting Tonnekirkus Island when they were down there taking refuge from Herod.

But anyway, after eight centuries of Tonnekirkus Island, it's transferred to Axum where it

is today.

So from about 642 BC, Elephantine Island, Egypt, at 420 BC, it transfers to Tonnekirkus Island

in Ethiopia.

And now it's at Axum, and it's destined to be presented to the Mount Zion.

According to Isaiah 18 and Zephaniah, 310 and other passages.

Now we don't know if the relic that they're guarding is the ark of the covenant, but the

more we study it, the more it looks like it could very well be.

There's a whole story behind that.

I encourage you to dig out on your own and come to your own conclusions.

But the question was, why was the Ethiopian treasure on a mission?

And it's our conjecture that he was there to check out is it time to deliver the ark

of the covenant to the Messiah.

He gets to Jerusalem, discovers the Maya.

And the Messiah is apparently killed.

He's confused.

On his way home, Philip is supernaturally dispatched to explain to him Isaiah 53, which essentially

says that the Messiah is destined to return.

So I think he went back to Queen Candace and said, not yet.

And they've been guarding it ever since.

It moved from Tonnekirkus Island to Axum, Ethiopia, 330 AD.

And they celebrate it every year.

They don't actually bring it out.

They bring ceremonial relic for ceremonial purposes.

But each January, we're not everyone, but we try to go down there in January and join

them.

It's interesting to see, it's interesting to stand on an island, stand on a hill surrounded

by tens of thousands of Levites in white sheets, singing and praying, ecstatically, round the

clock for two days prior and during the two days of Timcat, celebrating, get this, the

baptism of Jesus Christ.

They have a ceremony that goes down to the water and comes back, takes two days long.

It's very colorful, very interesting, but try to integrate that.

Tens of thousands of Levites celebrating the baptism of Christ.

I think it's kind of interesting.

Anyway, moving on.

So anyway, the Ethiopian treasure encounters Philip.

He interprets the scripture for him.

He says, Jesus, there's some water.

Here's some water.

Can I not be baptized?

Certainly you can't.

So he baptized him and he goes on to report to Queen Candace.

So Peter, meanwhile, travels north, preaching in every town.

Peter settles in Caesarea with wife and daughter.

And Stephen is martyred in Jerusalem.

And after he's martyred, believers are scattered throughout the world.

And some travel up to Antioch.

Now I want to warn you, there are two Antiochs.

The main one is the one we're looking at here.

The Antioch, we could call it the Antioch of Syria.

There's another one we're going to encounter up in Galatia that's less important.

This is the Antioch that's important.

It becomes the strategic center of the Gentile outreach of the church.

In chapter 11, they travel to Antioch and initially preached to Jews only.

But some of these come from Cyprus, some from North Africa, and they preach to Gentiles.

So this is the beginning of the Gentile conversions.

Now the Jerusalem church sends Barnabas a trusted leader to find out what's going on

up in Antioch.

He collects Saul from Tarsus.

He had spent some time in Tarsus.

And they stayed a teach for several years.

Now it's the strength of the church in Antioch that raises money to assist, to relieve the

church in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is technically James is the head of it and they're sort of the leaders at the

same time they're poor.

They have financial needs.

Antioch is stronger and sends relief money.

There's many records there where Paul encourages them to send money to the church in Jerusalem.

And they also, from Antioch, not only they support the church in Jerusalem financially,

but they also send missionaries to foreign countries.

So it becomes a major, major center for the last half of the book of Acts, for sure.

Very cosmopolitan countries.

It's one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire.

And it's interesting to see the cross section of these cosmopolitan people that God is using.

Barnabas was a Jew from Cyprus.

Simeon, also called Simeon the Black, probably from Africa.

Al-Lusius was a sirene from North African city.

Manim was a foster brother to Herod Antipas, obviously of influence.

And we have this interesting character by the name of Saul who was a Jew from Roman Tarsus.

He later would become Paul the apostle, an interesting cross section of people.

And just like you and me, all different kinds.

Well let's shift now.

We talked about Philip.

Let's talk about Acts of Peter.

On Pentecost, he preaches, of course, and many become believers.

He heals a lame man.

He's arrested with John and warned not to preach, but of course that does no good.

Peter and John follow Philip into Samaria and many believe there.

I've mentioned that before.

Peter then goes to Lydia and Japa to raise Dorcas from death.

And miracles going along the way.

Then we get into this interesting issue with Cornelius.

He's a centurion.

You know it's interesting in the book of Acts and in the Gospel of Luke.

Centurions are always good guys.

It's very fascinating.

You'll also notice when you read Luke and Acts is that there's always an emphasis there

that the uprisings, the trouble, was always the Jewish leadership reacting to the Christians.

And it's all through the book of Acts that the persecution didn't come from the Romans.

Came from the Jewish leadership.

The Roman oppression came later and Nero and much later.

But in any case, here we have Cornelius.

He has a vision in Caesarea.

That's where he's based.

That's the major headquarters for the Roman activity was Caesarea.

Not Jerusalem.

They were in Jerusalem only for holidays.

The pilot was in Jerusalem during Passover because it was a holiday.

Normally, his headquarters was in Caesarea.

Anyway, so he has a vision and he sends for Peter who's down in Japa.

While this is going on, Peter down in Japa has a vision.

So he goes to Caesarea.

This is where we have this strange vision where the sheet comes down with all the non-coacher

food in it and rise and eat.

He wouldn't eat because it was Jewish.

This is non-coacher stuff.

He says, don't condemn what I have blessed.

So it happens three times.

The message that gets across to Peter is that all things are lawful.

And it's a whole different...

It's really opening the door to the Gentile believers.

Major thing in Acts 10.

So Peter reports to the Jerusalem church who accept because of all this.

They accept the fact that the gospel is for Gentiles also, not just Jews.

And this starts, this leads to a whole other set of issues that are going to come to head

in chapter 15 of Acts.

But at this point, there are Gentiles that are accepting Christ in becoming what you and

I would consider what we would call Christians.

Peter's arrested and he's miraculously released and so forth.

There's many of these episodes going.

And he ultimately will testify at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.

And we'll get there.

The rest of Peter's work, we don't know much about.

We know that he meets Paul in Antioch.

And he also visits churches in North Asia Minor.

We hear allusions to that.

There's evidence that he was in Corinth at one time.

He wrote his first letter.

First Peter was written from Babylon.

Now, it's very interesting.

There are many people that believe that Babylon is a code for the city of Rome.

That's utter foolishness.

Babylon was a major Jewish center.

He wrote his first epistle from Babylon.

The Babylonian Talmud came from Babylon.

Babylon in those days was a major Jewish center.

It was no longer a dominant imperial town like it had centuries earlier, but it's still

there as a major center.

So as we were going.

Peter was executed in Rome just as the Lord had predicted.

And Mark wrote his gospel in Rome just after Peter's death.

He asked someone as a secretary or an amanuensis for Peter.

So when you read the Gospel of Mark, it's really almost Peter's perspective.

Peter was a guy of action, not words.

And Mark's gospel is like a shooting script.

It includes details.

When they sit on the grass, it's green grass, etc.

If you watch this, a very brief, tight little gospel.

Actually, it'd be longer than Matthew if Matthew hadn't included all the discourses.

Matthew included the discourses because he took short hand.

But let's get to pick up this Damascus road event.

Very, very important thing.

Saul was a young, he spent his early years in Tarsus.

He was a born a Roman citizen, raised in Tarsus.

Tarsus was a very important Roman city.

And he was also the seat of a famous university, higher in reputation than any of the other

universities, even Athens or Alexandria, were the only other ones that existed.

But Tarsus was a top intellectual center.

He was taken to Jerusalem as a young boy and educated by, of all people, Gamaliel himself.

Gamaliel is probably the most venerated Jewish teacher at that time.

So he became a Pharisee, very well taught in both Greek culture and Hebrew culture.

And of course, when Stephen is stoned to death for his faith, Saul's the guy holding the

coats of the guys throwing the stones.

And he becomes a violent persecutor of the church.

And he's given letters of authority to imprison Christians and he even travels to foreign

cities to root them out.

This is Saul.

So he's, as I say, educated in Jerusalem and so forth.

Now he's on the road to Damascus, on the way there.

And he's confronted by guess who?

Jesus Christ.

Saul, why do you persecute me?

And he's also, he's told then to go when he gets to Damascus to check out with this

guy Anais, Ananias.

And he's blinded in the meantime.

And when he gets to Ananias, his blindness is healed.

And he's baptized there as a Christian.

Now this also leads to some speculation.

We do know that Paul had some medical afflictions.

We also have hints in his letters that they had something to do with his eyes.

So even though his blindness was healed, he apparently did suffer some ocular optical

impairment here.

And apparently it was very non-cosmetic.

And those are, so we don't know that much more than that.

But in any case, he has this incredible experience where he now is called by the Lord Jesus Christ

to serve him.

He stays in Damascus while there, during the Damascus period, he also spends about three

years in the Arabian desert and then returns to Damascus.

And so he's, during that time, he apparently is instructed directly by the Holy Spirit

and so forth.

Now he becomes the apostle to the Gentiles.

So three years after his conversion, he is now forced to flee Damascus in a basket.

They throw him over a basket over the wall to get him out of town.

That's a pattern he's going to endure a lot in his life, I guess.

He goes to see Peter and Barnabas introduces Paul to the suspicious believers.

You've got to understand the predicament of the believers in those days.

Here's this zealot that has been persecuting.

He's not coming and posing as a Christian.

They think he's just a, it's just a ruse to get their names before they, you know, get

imprisoned or something.

So they had to overcome that paranoia, if you will.

And Barnabas helps him with that.

He talks with Peter and James and after two weeks he's smuggled out of Jerusalem, but

with the blessing, if you will, of Peter and James.

And he's taken to Caesarea and then to Tarsus.

And he'll be in Tarsus about ten years before Barnabas comes and recruits him to come to

Antioch where all the action is.

In the meantime, Paul had a vision at Cilician and Ciri in some places, but he's still relatively

unknown to believers in Judea.

He's doing most of this up there, north of Ciri, in a region that would be associated

with Asia Minor.

And Barnabas finally recruits him and brings him to Antioch because that's where all the

action is.

And they teach together for a year.

They become good buddies.

They'll have a dispute that splits them up.

Meanwhile, Saul, Barnabas and Titus bring famine relief money for Judea.

So again, the churches up north are helping to support the believers down in Jerusalem.

And so anyway, the leadership meets privately and they acknowledge Saul's ministry to the

Gentiles.

Now this leads to the first missionary journey, which is the goal is really what we would

call Galatia, if you will, or Asia Minor.

So these are different cities.

Let's take a look at that.

Saul Barnabas set out together from Antioch and they're joined by a young man, young John

Mark.

And Rich Kid, probably a little spoiled.

There's all kinds of speculation that he might have been the rich young man that fled naked

in the garden that night and so forth.

They go to Cyprus.

They encounter a character by the Ambar Jesus who is a false prophet but a friend of the

governor.

He struck blind.

The governor thus becomes a believer and some other things occur.

But then they head to Italia.

At this point, from Paphas on, that Saul starts calling himself Paul.

He changes his name from Saul, the Paul.

It's also about this time that John Mark is not excited about getting up in Galatia.

It's apparently a very rough country and he fades on them and goes back to Jerusalem,

something that really upsets Paul later.

It gets into a big debate with Barnabas over this.

And Paul preaches to both Jews and Gentiles and the Jews are very jealous.

They get very upset and they stir up opposition.

They stay quite a while.

Many Jews and Gentiles become believers.

But a Gentile plot against their lies forces them to move on.

And so they stay.

That brings up about chapter 14.

And at Listerip Paul heals a cripple.

They are hailed as gods that people want to worship them.

Enemies arrive from Antioch and Iconium and they're almost killed there.

And they flee to Derby and many more disciples are one and so forth.

Several times here Paul will be left for dead.

And whether he actually died or whether he rose from the dead is a debate among some

scholars but in any case there's a lot of adventures here.

And so they return back home the way they came, revisiting the churches they planted,

encouraging these young churches.

And they finally give the final report to the church in Antioch.

Now this leads to Acts 15.

This is a chapter that's very, very important.

You obviously can't recount all the little details.

You just read them.

But once you understand Acts 15, a huge controversy has erupted within the church over what obligations

are incumbent upon Gentile believers.

You need to understand the situation.

Before Christ if you wanted to join the Israel and their worship you became a proselyte.

You would take on the obligations of becoming a Jew.

You'd get circumcised and adopt all the legal requirements.

The Jewish church, all the believers, the apostles, they were all Jewish.

And they took for granted that if you wanted to join the church great you became a Jew.

And they assumed you get circumcised and you'd have to give them a say of cloth.

And the other said no they're still Gentiles, they're say but they're Gentiles.

The big controversy erupted here.

Do they have to get circumcised?

Do they have to keep the Mosaic laws and so forth?

Paul and Barnabas and Peter and others came down to Jerusalem to get this whole thing resolved

because by now it had become a big dispute.

And they give the report about how they've gone to these places and people accept Christ

and the Holy Spirit gets poured out, people get healed.

They don't become Jewish.

That's the argument.

Peter is also there and he testifies.

And I want you to notice I love the way Peter puts this.

And Acts 15, this Peter speaks, now therefore why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the neck

of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

In other words why make these Gentiles take on all the burdens of the Jewish laws?

Why tempt you God?

To put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples meaning that believers which neither our fathers

nor we are able to bear.

And we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even

as they.

Get the inversion?

He's not saying these guys can be saved just like we are.

He's saying we might be as saved as they are because he's doing that in the context of

these miracles that they're observing as they go through in these foreign countries where

people accept the Lord, they get the Holy Spirit and all kinds of miraculous things happen.

So that's what he's arguing.

But what most people who study this chapter miss is there are two issues here.

The main issue that we focus on is gee does a believer have to become a Jew to be saved

and the answer of course no.

But there's another problem.

What must a Gentile do to be saved?

He's going to answer that of course.

But the other question is what's to become of Israel?

See the implied question, the other flip side of that question is if a believer, a Gentile

does not have to become a Jew to be saved, what was this all for?

All of our history, all of these laws, all of these ordinances, priesthood, all the temple.

Is this all now over?

Is it gone?

Yes, there is issue.

And James is clear to the leader of the church in Jerusalem.

It says, Men and Brethren, Harken unto me, Simian hath declared how God at the first

did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.

And to this agree the words of the prophets as it is written, quote, and he's not quoting,

it happens from Amos chapter 9.

It says, After this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which has

fallen down and will build again the ruins thereof.

And I will set it up and he goes on.

In other words, God is going to call out a people for his name out of the Gentiles.

And once that's done, he will then return and build the tabernacle and do all these

other things.

Do you follow me?

So the main point here is, well, two points that I believe it does not have to become a

Jew to become a Gentile, not have to become a Jew to be in Christ.

He's grafted in by the very fact that he's in Christ.

But the second thing is that God is not through with Israel.

Israel has a destiny after the church is complete.

And that's what it's emphasizing.

Very important point that most churches today miss.

Do your own study come to your own conclusions.

The resolution that James publishes, the Gentiles should abstain from idols, abstain from fornication,

and abstain from things strangled in blood.

That's a hygienic thing.

You say, other than that, fine.

There's no comment here about circumcision.

There's no comment here about keeping the Sabbath.

That doesn't mean those aren't good things to do.

It means they're not required.

See, that's the point.

There's a big difference.

There's no commitment to the ceremonial laws.

They're not laid on them for that.

The other issue here is that of Israel's identity, and we're going to take that up

in the next session because the Book of Romans spends three chapters hammering on that one

for us.

We'll get to the second missionary journey after the Council of Jerusalem in which they

go to Greece, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus and so forth.

And so Paul and Barnabas argue about taking Mark along.

Mark what's going on, and Paul wants to be part of it because he quit on them before.

So Barnabas, this causes Paul and Barnabas to split up.

God usually uses their attention to double their efforts because Barnabas takes Mark and

they go their way, and Paul takes Silas and they go their way.

So they got now two teams out rather than just one team.

So Barnabas takes Paul with him to Cyprus.

Paul takes Silas to Galatia.

And at Lister, Paul encounters a young guy, Timothy, to join them.

Becomes one of his proteges.

And his couple of letters to Timothy are treasures for us to this day.

But understand there's another Antioch, the encounter, up there in Galatia.

Antioch of Hasidia, some people would call it, but don't confuse the two any.

The key one is the one in Syria, the first one we mentioned.

And anyway, as they go through now, they publish the decisions of the Jerusalem Council that

the Gentile can join the church by accepting Christ.

He does not have to be circumcised or become a Jew to do so.

And Paul goes to Bethynia, which is up north, northern part of Turkey, almost that area

that's starting to get into Magog, if you will.

And he's blocked by the Holy Spirit.

He wants to go there badly, but the Holy Spirit makes it quite clear that that ain't where

he wants you.

And I might mention something here as you read the book of Acts, you encounter these

resistances and so forth.

But Luke is editorializing for you.

The Holy Spirit won't let him go.

Realize that's glibly said, but it's an inference they have to draw from having encountered

certain kinds of resistance and so forth.

But it's at this time that Paul has a night vision.

In this night vision, in a dream, there's a Macedonian that shows up and urges him to

come across, see, Macedonia is across the sea to Greece.

He said, come on over and see, the one in Paul can't go north, the Holy Spirit won't

let him, but he is called to go west to Greece by the Macedonian dream.

And so at Troas.

And so it's also at this point, by the way, that we discover Luke joins them.

This is where he first shows up in the picture.

And they sail then for Macedonia, or what we might consider northern Greece.

There are many scholars that suspect that Luke was the guy in the dream.

It was a prophecy of encountering Luke, but whatever.

In any case, that takes him to Philippi.

And there's a girl that's a medium, that has an evil spirit, she becomes a believer.

When she becomes a believer, she loses her occultic gift.

That's very interesting.

Her owners are a teetah, because that was a source of income.

So they protest, there's a big crowd, and there's a bruja that goes on.

And they get flogged and prisined, but they're freed by an earthquake.

The jailer is really panicked, he's going to kill himself, because he would inherit all

the liabilities that are thus unfinished if these do escape.

But he gets converted by Paul.

Very interesting.

The Philippi and jailer is an interesting episode there.

They travel to Fessin'a likea, a little further westward.

So Paul convinces both Jews and Greeks, both Jews and Gentiles.

The Jewish establishment in the region stirs up a riot against it.

And Paul leaves secretly.

He has to get out of town.

So he slips out of Fessin'a likea and heads to Berea.

And this is chapter 17.

They get a little better reception there, but there's still a mob that gets stirred up

by Jews from Fessin'a likea, and there's still problems.

But one of the, there's a verse that's become one of our trademarks in this ministry.

Because Luke tells us that the people in Berea were more, they had riots in both places,

they had people except in both places, they had riots in both places.

But he says, the ones in Berea were more noble than those in Fessin'a likea in that.

They received the Word of God with all openness of mind, but they searched the scriptures

daily to prove where those things we saw.

We might say they came, they're from Missouri.

In other words, they were open but still skeptical.

And that's healthy.

That's what Paul is, they're more noble than those that's like.

In that they received the Word with all the raves of mind, yet searched the scriptures

daily to prove where those things be.

So the way I usually paraphrase that, that's where Luke tells you, don't believe anything.

Chuck Mr. tells you.

But do your own diligence.

Receive with all openness of mind, but search the scriptures daily to prove where those things

be so.

And we've used that as a trademark on our institute and other things, so for what it's

worth.

Okay.

Well, Paul leaves for Athens.

He leaves Silas and Timothy behind to follow up on the work and he goes to Athens.

And this is where we have the famous, in Acts 17, the famous speech he makes on Mars Hill,

at theropicus or at Mars Hill, if you will.

And let's talk a little bit about that.

Aropicus was the court of the judges, if you will.

It was crowned by the Parthenon, if you go there to visit theirs, temples, theaters,

marketplace, the agorod, all of that.

Aropicus was where some four centuries earlier Socrates was tried and put to death.

This is where Paul makes his famous speech.

And essentially, Paul speeches.

He's not preaching to Jews here.

He's preaching to Greeks.

So he's not speaking from the Old Testament.

He's not quoting the scriptures.

He's quoting Greek poets.

First of all, he starts where their heart is.

So you have to understand they were idolaters.

You know how many gods they had there in Athens?

30,000 is estimate by some scholars.

They had all kinds of things.

And he notices, so he gives them a compliment.

He says, you're obviously extremely devout.

You're very Godfearing.

Look at all the gods you've got.

He doesn't turn that against them.

He says, you're obviously very Godfearing.

But he's going through this.

He says, I found one idol committed to the unknown God.

That's the guy I want to talk to you about, the one you don't know.

You see the genius here that's going on.

And he goes on and he says, we are his offspring.

He's not quoting from the Old Testament.

He's quoting from an astronomical poem by Aratus.

That was a Greek concomment of Paul from Tarsus, that is, a predecessor three centuries earlier.

He also quotes from a religious hymn of Cleanthes of Troas, who was a contemporary

of Aratus.

So these are two ancient Greek poets that would be venerated by his audience.

He quotes from them to give them a place to start.

And so that's where the famous speech at Mars Hill is.

And he also in another place by the way, they're a coach from a yet a third Greek poet,

Menander in the first Corinthians 15.

But in any case.

The very famous speech, not a lot, is accomplished.

They just agreed to talk more about it later.

He departs from Athens to Corinth, which is very close, of course, but not very far away.

Silas and Timothy bring news from Thessalon-likeen.

And as a result, Paul writes the Thessalonian letters.

And he'll spend about two years here, despite the Jewish opposition.

These Thessalonian letters are the two earliest, we think, the earliest epistles.

They're so important that we're going to defer dealing with them until we get to our

21, which is going to be our review of eschatology.

But it's interesting that both of these letters that he writes to the Thessalonians review

what he taught them when he was there.

He was there for a few weeks.

He's now been gone two years.

But when he writes letters to them, he simply reminds them of things he taught them while

he was there for a few weeks.

The first letter emphasizes the rapture.

They're all concerned and he explains again how the rapture works.

So it's very, very important to understand the first Thessalonian letter.

Later on, they again get concerned about eschatology.

They're all worried about the fact that the tribulation seems to have started and they're

still here.

They apparently were taught that they would not see the great tribulation.

It doesn't mean they wouldn't have persecution.

There's a difference.

Anyway, Paul clarifies that in the second letter.

So the two letters, interestingly enough, deal with eschatology.

What's really bizarre is these are considered very advanced topics in modern Bible studies.

But what's fascinating to me is Paul taught them these issues in the first few weeks

of their Christian experience.

It's two years later, he writes them letters and in the letters, he reminds them of that

which he taught them when he was with them, which means he exposed them to these ideas

right up front, which I think is very fascinating.

But anyway, the Thessalonian letters, he writes from Corinth back to Thessalonian.

We'll study those in depth in a subsequent session.

And then they sail from here to Ephesus and they wanted, when he got to Ephesus, they

wanted him to stay longer but he resists that and they travel back to Antioch via, they

go to Caesarea and Jerusalem first but then they get back to their home church which is

Antioch in effect.

He stopped by Jerusalem, the report, but the real basis of operations is Antioch.

So that's the second.

The third missionary journey, they finally decide to revisit the churches in Galatia

and where they were on the first journey.

And after they revisit those churches, he makes Ephesus his base there for three years

and a palace shows up about this time, disciples of the palace receive the Holy Spirit, a church

is founded and there's more adventures.

There are some problems at Corinthian because it caused a lot of confusion.

Paul, while in Ephesus, plans to go to Macedonia, he sends Timothy and Arrestis instead.

They may go on to visit Corinth but Paul is very worried about the immorality in the church

there in Corinth.

To be a Corinthian, as we'll get into it when we get to Corinthian, to be a Corinthian was

equivalent to calling a person a fornicator.

It was analogous to what we think of as Hollywood today or something.

Paul is very worried about the church there because about immorality.

And so three members of the Corinthian church bring a letter to Paul and it's full of questions

and the problems apparently are far greater than Paul had even realized.

And so he writes a letter in response to this visit back to Corinth.

We call that letter 1 Corinthians and he tackles these problems.

Well Paul hurries to Corinth and when he gets there, the encounter there is apparently very

painful for everyone.

Paul has to be very severe.

He returns then back to Ephesus and writes a second letter that we don't apparently have.

Don't think of 2 Corinthians.

We'll just call it the severe letter.

And Titus takes this letter to Corinth and Paul arranges to meet Titus up in Troas to

get how the situation is going.

And so Paul is at the center of a riot in Ephesus.

His messages there in Ephesus have threatened the silver trade.

There are a bunch of gills that made their money off selling religious artifact and they're

celebrating the Ephesian goddess Diana.

And so that trade is dropping off because of Paul's preaching.

So there's a big riot.

Anyway, he goes up to Troas and he Paul's really worried about this last letter, this

painful letter.

Was it too harsh?

Titus is not where he was supposed to be.

He somehow, it didn't appear as arranged.

So he goes to Macedonia in search of Titus.

I have no idea how they would arrange to meet but somehow through the network stuff they

would meet to arrange.

And meanwhile he's on the way, he's encouraging churches and he's collecting money for the

church in Jerusalem.

Finally Paul and Titus meet and Paul gets good news.

The severe letter was taken as Paul had intended.

It did not result in the misunderstandings that Paul was fearful of.

So he writes what we call second Corinthians.

It's really, you might call third Corinthians if you recognize there's one that we've lost.

Some people feel that the second Corinthians is actually a composite of several letters

and the missing letter may be part of it, tucked in there.

There's this glassy debate about that.

But in any case, Paul writes second Corinthians, it was just full of joy.

Many people, it's their favorite epistle because it's a joyful epistle.

And Titus takes the letter to prepare the church for Paul's visit.

And so that's what letter we call second Corinthians written in response to Paul's anxiety, you

know, hearing the good news.

He stays in the cave for about three months probably in Corinth or at least in that region.

And there he writes the letter to the Romans, the most comprehensive statement of Christian

doctrine in the Bible.

And he plans to travel to Jerusalem by sea, however a plot by his enemies forced him to

return through Macedonians.

So he changes plans to respond to that threatened persecution.

And so he arrives at Philippi and at Troy's, he preaches till midnight.

There's one guy sitting in a window that falls asleep and it's a third story window.

So he fell and apparently died.

But he's raised from the dead.

I want you to notice that he was preaching for about six hours.

So those of you that are a little restless after six or 90 minutes.

Okay.

Anyway, Malitis, now Paul wants to talk to the elders at Ephesus.

He seems to know that this is the end, the last time he'll see them because he knows

what's there's some tough adventures coming.

But he doesn't go to Ephesus, he goes to Malitis which is on the opposite side of a

peninsula.

The elders cross the peninsula to come meet him.

He's doing that to avoid the crowds.

He wants to give us farewell to the elders there.

So he bids farewell to the Ephesian elders.

We're going to talk more about that when we get to the book of Revelation because we're

going to explore the nuances there when Jesus Christ writes a letter to Ephesus and show

how those fit together.

So we'll deal with that then.

Very touching letter of affection and also warnings of the future at Malitis to the

Ephesian elders and then he goes from there back to Tyre and back to Home Base.

And so after lighting a tire they spend a day at Thomas and then up to Caesarea they

stay at Phillips house.

Agabus the prophet dramatizes to Paul.

He takes Paul's belt and dies himself up and shows this is what's going to happen to

you when you get down to Jerusalem.

Paul is undeterred.

He's going to go to Jerusalem despite these prophetic warnings.

And when he gets to Jerusalem of course he's welcomed by the church fortunately.

But he's recognized by some adversary Jews from Asia and mob tries to kill him.

There's 40 guys that swear blood oath to kill him.

They don't do that.

I don't know whatever happened to them because the Roman troops rescue Paul from all of that.

He does get permission to make a speech but that just incites more violence.

So Paul announces his Roman citizenship.

That shakes up the Romans a bit to realize he's a born, he's got Roman citizenship that's

very unusual.

And he made a defense before the Jerusalem counsel turns violent.

So the violence comes from the Jewish leadership.

I understand that.

The Roman troops are arresting him but they're doing that to protect him.

And so anyway the Romans learned about this plot against his life and so he sent under

armed guard to Caesarea which is the headquarters.

This were governor Felix is in residence.

So Paul has a number of hearing before the Sanhedrin which turned violent.

He has a hearing before governor Felix who defers and he's still in prison for two years

until Festus replaces Felix.

Festus receives them.

But by this time Paul is getting the message several years in prison while they're waiting

to figure out what to do.

They don't have to do with him.

From an administrative point of view they just want peace but here's this guy where he goes

there's all this uproar so they don't quite share what to do.

So before Festus Paul says okay he plays his trump card.

I appeal to Caesar.

He's a Roman citizen he has that right.

That also means by the way a written record of all the background has to precede him to

Rome and that's what Luke's all about we think.

He was funded by, he got someone to fund him with the office and that was all pulled together

in support of Paul's hearing.

But in any case he's still in prison while this gets all resolved and now he's before

King of Gripen.

Gripen is kind of impressed with him but he can't do anything now because Paul has put

it out of his hands he's put it to Caesar.

That's what Christ's destiny is to get Paul to Rome for lots of reasons.

Well we have this very interesting chapter in the book of Acts chapter 27 where they

leave from Jerusalem to Caesar via the Episees, go to Sidon and the Paul and other prisoners

pick up a ship of Sidon late in the season.

This is in October so it's getting too late to safely navigate these waters.

There are a lot of storms at this time and so they pick up a grainery, a huge ship, a

grain ship heading for Rome.

That's the way they supplied the food to Rome.

At Myra they pick up this grainery and they get to a place, they're tacking and they get

to a place called Fairhaven which is a shelter from bad weather.

They hope it's just a little bit further they'd like to get a Phoenice because they

believe that would be a better harbor to weather the winter in.

But they have a meeting, the Centurion that's a board that's a military commander, the ship

owner, ship captain and Paul.

Paul's quite a seasoned experienced guy at this point.

Look by the way as along with him probably as a slave.

It's the only way he would be able to accompany Paul as a prisoner but he's a luke so long

as his slave or a doctor.

But in any case Paul tries to advise him to stay at Fairhaven and not go further but

they ignore him, what does he know?

And so they decide to try to make a Phoenice but a huge storm shifts and they get near

the little island quota but they suddenly find themselves in desperate straights.

And the storm blows them, they're fearful of getting to the desert area here.

If they should land on the northern part of Africa in that area there's no water for

many, many miles it's a commitment to death in effect.

And so but anyway in this storm they ultimately end up after two weeks of storm.

They jettison all their cargo and gear, they stave off a mutiny and along the way Paul ends

up winning the respect and the admiration of the Centurion and the tribunal.

He takes a liking to Paul, in fact he saves their life and the Centurion saves his.

But they reach the sandbar in which the ship's going to break up on and there's an incident

where they drop four anchors.

They have anchors to keep the ship from crashing and then they finally cut the anchors head

in and swim to shore, no lives were lost, all this was predicted by an angel to Paul

and he mentions that if they follow his directions which they do and in effect it's quite a dramatic

event.

Now the reason I'm touching on this in Acts 27 there's so much marine detail that it

was recently possible by looking at that very carefully to track down the four anchors of

Paul.

They're exactly where the Bible says they would be and we just got back from a cruise

a few months ago where they were formally delivered to the museum at Malta.

And so that's there's a we have briefing packs on that Bob Cornuk was very instrumental

in having us all pulled together has written some very graphic books on this is very worth

your reading I commend them to your background.

But in any case while they're on Malta they survive venomous snake and they heal the chief

of the island of a fever after three months they sail to Syracuse and after three days

at Regime and then on to Petoli which is a major harbor and he's Paul's very encouraged

by the local believers he's kept under house arrest awaiting trial for two years he's under

house arrest in effect in Rome and he enjoys considerable freedom to breach.

The last we hear Paul of course through his pastoral letters his first his there are three

books that in the Old Testament I mean the New Testament that they give us glimpses of

what happened after the book of Acts.

They're written to two of his young proteges first Timothy Paul is out of prison by this

time probably released from his house arrested Rome and at the end of Acts he'd recently

been an Ephesus and heading for Macedonia he left Timothy and Ephesus to continue his

work and he's giving him counsel that letter is very worth reading.

Titus was Paul's troubleshooter when there was a trouble in church that Paul couldn't

deal with he dispatched Titus a number of occasions and he apparently traveled to Crete

with Titus and he knows the situation there very well so he may have been on Crete for

some time he left Titus there to ask him to meet him at Macopolis and we intend to spend

the winter and so forth and so Titus is as I say one of his troubleshooters and then

his last letter of all he wrote to Timothy now this situation Paul is in prison probably

facing death and it's Paul that is encouraging Timothy your thing would be the other way

around and he seems to expect execution pretty soon but he had been traveling recently he

left his cloak and there's some books at Troas apparently and he'd been at Mennelitis and

Corinth they're leaving friends in all those places and there's a hint that he may have

also been at Ephesus anyway this does seem to be Paul's last letter there's also some

hints here and there that he may have visited Spain he had intentions to do so and some

scholars believe that he he may have done so after his fuse arrested he's arrested released

had some freedom and then was arrested again and then killed and so there's a tradition

that he did visit Spain so so much the book of Acts let's just wrap it up the birth of

the church is the key issue as distinct from Israel study those topics very carefully the

book of Acts is the gateway to the epistles we've been to the historical books now we're

going to get into the interpretation and significance of all these things the history of the first

thirty years of the church is outlined in the book of Acts the next two thousand are

also in the Bible in the in the form of Revelation chapter two and three which will deal with

in a special session when we get there just as the period between the two testaments is

not absent from your Bible it's anticipated in Daniel chapter 11 verses 5 to 35 likewise

the history of the church after the first thirty years it's covered by the book of Acts

is anticipated in the seven letters that Jesus profiles for us in Revelation chapters two

and three so our next session will be on the pistol of the Romans the definitive gospel

according to Paul the most comprehensive book in the New Testament its impact the impact

of the book of Romans is unequaled in all of history see grace always erodes to forms

of legalism and when grace finally becomes obscured you know what that leads to the dark

ages from the sixth to the sixteenth century dark period what got us out of the dark period

was the rediscovery if you will of God's grace through the book of Romans if you really want

us to history the church you should either get our briefing pack called the kingdom of blood

that Dave Hunt and I did together or better yet just go get Dave's book a woman rides

the beast which gives you both a historical and a prophetic glimpse of the what I'll call

the medieval church and so that'll be next time let's stand.