New read for March: Acts Chapters 16, 17 and 18. We are past the half way mark in Acts. Good job, keep it up.
Sunday is the start of March and with the first of the month comes the new reading. However, with February only having 28 days, I plan to read Acts chapters 13, 14 and 15 on March 1 and 2 along with the new readings. This will make those chapters a true 30 day read/study as we have been doing.
New read for March: Acts Chapters 16, 17 and 18. We are past the half way mark in Acts. Good job, keep it up.
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Last week, we reviewed Acts 14. In review, we read of the first Missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. They traveled to many places and were chased from many places. The journey lasted between one and two years and covered 700 miles by foot and around 500 miles by boat. It has been said that Paul wrote Galatians soon after returning from this journey. That journey accomplished the removal of any barrier between the Gentiles and the Jews and although they had been continually met with resistance, they endured and accomplished what they were sent to do.
Now, that Gentile had been given the blessing of being able to be saved by faith in Christ via Paul and Barnabas' preaching of the Good News. Some men came to Antioch from Judea and insisted that if the Gentiles were going to join the Jewish believers in salvation, then they must be circumcised as was their practice, handed down by Moses. In fact, they told the believers if they did not get circumcised, they would not be saved. Paul and Barnabas argued "vehemently" (with intense conviction or emotion) with the men from Judea. Finally, the church sent Paul and Barnabas to the church headquarters in Jerusalem to talk with the leaders to settle this dispute. They also sent other believers along to act as witnesses. On the way, they stopped in Phoenicia and told the believers there how the Gentiles were now also being converted which brought great joy. When they got to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the whole church. Paul and Barnabas told them all about their missionary journey, what they had seen and heard, and what God had done through them. Some of the believers in the crowd who belonged to the sect of believers called Pharisees stood up and insisted the Gentile converts be circumcised. Following the meeting at which Paul and Barnabas were sharing their journey, the elders and apostles gathered to solve the dispute about circumcision. After a long discussion, Peter stood and first reminded them that "some time ago" God chose him to preach the Good News to the Gentiles. God knew the hearts of those who believed and God acknowledged their right hearts by giving the gift of the Holy Spirit to them as He did to the Jews. The action of God back then (about 10 years earlier) settled the situation with the Gentiles once and for all. He asked why should God's past decision now be challenged by adding the burden of circumcision. God accepted their transformation by their hearts and added nothing more to it. What reason would there be to burden the Gentiles with the yoke of circumcision under Mosaic Law other than to test God. Paul's speech ended with him saying, "We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus." Paul and Barnabas continued sharing the events of their missionary journey and the miraculous signs and wonders done through them among the Gentiles. When they finished, James stood asking them to listen to him. He spoke of Peter's account about the first time God visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for Himself. He explained how the conversion of the Gentiles is exactly what was predicted by the prophets. By doing this, he was giving more validity to their case than just the experiences of Paul and Barnabas. James quoted the Old Testament prophet, Amos, in the book of Amos 9:11-12. The manner in which James spoke still brings about discussion of whether or not the salvation is given to the Gentiles before of after the return of Christ but the point he made was that (regardless of the timing of things) no mention was ever made requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised. James concludes his quoting of the book of Amos with, "The Lord has spoken, he who made these things known so long ago." James then declared his judgement that they should not make it harder for the Gentiles turning to God by making them be circumcised. His view was that instead of circumcision, they should be telling the Gentiles to not eat of the food offered to idols or the meat of strangled animals, not to consume blood, and to stop sexual immorality. These laws have been preached in the synagogues for many years and are also considered to be part of Jewish ceremonial Law just as circumcision was. However, these laws would tie into scriptures regarding such practices as far back as Genesis, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and even Revelation. Adhering to these laws established moral rightness and solutions to moral issues commonly practiced and accepted by the Gentiles. In brief, when eating the meat of strangled animals is mentioned, it was a God given Jewish practice to drain the blood from an animal before the meat was taken and consumed. That also referred to not tearing apart a live animal and eating while the blood still runs through the body nor the drinking of blood after drained. These things were preached and taught in Jewish synagogues for many generations. The apostles, elders, and church chose delegates, a church leader, Judas, also called Barsabbas, and another church leader, Silas, to go to Antioch of Syria with Paul and Barnabas to share their decision by the reading of an official letter. The letter was written thus; "This letter is from the apostles and elders, your brothers in Jerusalem. It is written to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings! We understand some men from here have troubled you and upset you with their teaching but we did not send them! So we decided, having come to complete agreement, to send you official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm what we have decided concerning your question. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell." The representatives went to Antioch, called a meeting of the believers, and read the letter. There was great joy throughout the church there. Judas and Silas (both prophets) spoke for a long time encouraging them and strengthening their faith. They all stayed for a while but then Judas and Silas returned to Jerusalem having been given a blessing of peace. Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch and preached and taught the word of the Lord along with others. After a time, Paul suggested he and Barnabas return to the cities where they previously preached to see how they were doing. Barnabas agreed and suggested they take John Mark. Paul disagreed because John Mark left them during their last mission journey. Apparently, the disagreement was quite harsh and they parted ways. Barnabas took John Mark and left for Cyprus while Paul left with Silas and upon their departure the believers entrusted them to the care of the Lord. Paul and Silas traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches in those areas. It is interesting to note that neither Barnabas nor John Mark are ever mentioned again in Acts, nor is Peter after the meetings where he is mentioned in chapter 15. Chapter 13 showed us how God blessed the work Paul and Barnabas were doing in Antioch by telling us many people came to faith in Jesus. However, we also saw the Jews stirring up a mob and how they chased Paul and Barnabas from the city.
We now begin chapter 14 with the same scenario. After Paul and Barnabas were chased from Antioch, they went to Iconium. While there, they preached and taught the word of God. God again blessed their work as "a great number of both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles) became believers." Just as in Antioch, some Jews strongly rejected God's message. They also went so far as to say things about Paul and Barnabas thus poisoning the minds of the Gentiles against them. Paul and Barnabas didn't give up but rather stayed and kept preaching the Good News. God continued to bless their work and affirmed what they were doing by giving them the power to do miraculous signs and wonders. The town was divided between those who sided with the Jews and those who sided with Paul and Barnabas. In other words, the division was between those who accepted the Good News and those who rejected it. The division got more intense and a mob made up of both Jews and Gentiles and some leaders devised a plan to attack and stone Paul and Barnabas. When they heard of that plan, Paul and Barnabas fled to the towns of Lystra and Derbe and the areas around there and continued to preach the Good News. As we have been studying Acts, we can't help but see when the Good News was peached in an area and many came to Christ, God allowed the Apostles to be chased from the town. It seems things intended for bad were actually used to move the word of God on to a new place where the Good News was preached and more people were saved. When evil attempted to squash the teaching of Christ, their efforts actually contributed to the spreading of the word. While Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra, they met a man who had crippled feet at birth and had never walked. Paul was preaching and noticed how intently the man was listening to his preaching, Paul looked right at the man and realized he had great faith. Paul called to him, "Stand up!" and the man jumped up and walked for the first time. The people who saw this began shouting that Paul and Barnabas were gods in human form. They believed Paul was Hermes because they were both great speakers or spokespersons. They believed Barnabas was Zeus because he was quiet, dignified, and kind of behind the scenes. This was a pagan community and the people calling them gods were speaking in their dialect. Paul and Barnabas had no idea what they were saying about them. Being a pagan area, the temple of Zeus was just outside of town. The priest sent people out to gather wreaths of flowers and bulls back to the city to be sacrificed to Paul and Barnabas. The priest was excited to do this possibly because he was aware of the legend of an older couple in Lystra (Philemon and Baucis) who were visited by Zeus and Hermes. Zeus and Hermes rewarded them greatly for their being treated so kindly. Perhaps the priest believed they too would be rewarded if they treated Paul/Hermes and Barnabas/Zeus well. When Paul and Barnabas understood the people were seeing them as gods, they were horrified and tore their robes. Tearing their robes was an understood display of their intense dislike of something, in this case, blasphemy. They had to be horrified that the people were seeing them as gods when they were there to awaken people to God and the Good News. The tearing of the robes was not random. The custom was to make a tear about 5 inches long down from the neckline. Paul and Barnabas then ran into the crowd shouting, "Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings just like you! We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made the heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. In the past, He permitted all the nations to go their own ways, but He never left them without evidence of Himself and His goodness. For instance, He sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts." Doing all they could do to stop them, they could hardly stop the crowd from sacrificing to them. Some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium (where Paul and Barnabas had been chased from in chapter 13 and earlier in this chapter) and began polluting the crowds with their lies against Paul and Barnabas. It is not said that these Jews were following Paul and Barnabas to deliberately attempt to stop them from preaching the Good News of Jesus but I cannot think otherwise. In reality, Paul and Barnabas were being persecuted for their preaching of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. The riled up group stoned Paul and thinking they had killed him, they dragged him out of town and left him. The believers followed them out of town and when Paul got up, they helped him back to town. The next day, Paul and Barnabas left town to go to Derbe. After they preached the Good News in Derbe, they went back through they towns that had chased them away (Lystra, Iconium and Antioch) to strengthen and encourage the believers there to continue in their faith. They spoke to them that they will suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God. Paul and Barnabas could easily speak to that for they had endured many things. While Paul and Barnabas were in these areas, through prayer and fasting, they appointed elders in every church and turned the care of them over to the Lord in whom they put their trust. Following that, they traveled back through Pisidia to Pamphylia and preached the word in Perga, then Attalia. They continued on to Antioch of Syria by ship thus going full circle back to where they started their journey. The believers back in Antioch of Syria had entrusted them to the grace of God in their journey and preaching. Paul and Barnabas called the church together and gave them a report of all that happened on the journey along with all that God had done. They spoke of how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles also. Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch of Syria for a long time. Perhaps a well deserved rest from travel and persecution. Chapter 13 begins by listing a few men who were among the teachers and the prophets at the church in Antioch. The church at Antioch became Saul’s home base during his ministry. The men listed are Barnabas-a Jew, Simeon-also a Jew, but called “the black man” reflected by his Latin nickname Niger which also reflected that he moved among the Romans. He “may” also have been the man, Simon of Cyrene who carried Christ’s cross but there is nothing that substantiates that claim. Also with them was Lucius of Cyrene in North Africa. Manaen who had been the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas. Being of such an upbringing he would have had high level contacts. His friend Herod Antipas was the one who beheaded John the Baptist and treated Jesus horribly during His trial. Last there was Saul, who was also a Jew who was trained in Rabbinical schools and was well educated and versed in Jewish teachings and law. One day when these men were fasting and worshipping, the Holy Spirit told them to dedicate Barnabas and Saul for a special work God had called them to. The other men fasted and prayed and then laid their hands on them and sent them off. John Mark, cousin to Barnabas, accompanied them as their assistant.
Saul and Barnabas were called and sent out by the Holy Spirit and went to the town of Salamis which was the largest city on the eastern side of the island of Cyprus. They went there to take the word of God to one of the largest populations of Jews giving them first chance to accept the Messiah, Jesus. They preached the word of God in the Jewish synagogue there. Following some time there, they traveled from town to town across the entire island and came to the town of Paphos. They met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus (which means son of Jesus in Aramaic; Jesus means “Yahweh is salvation”) who had become as a counselor or advisor to the governor, Sergius Paulus. Governor Paulus was an intelligent man and seemed to want to continually learn. The governor invited Saul to visit him so he could hear the word of God. Notice the Bible now uses Elymas for the sorcerer Bar-Jesus. Elymas is his name in Greek. Elymas tried to prevent Saul from coming to the governor so he would not believe in Saul’s teachings. I imagine he was worried he would loose his very comfortable position with the governor should that happen. In the next verse we see the first time scripture refers to Saul as “also known as Paul.” From now on the man Saul, will be called Paul. Paul was a man filled with the Holy Spirit and looked Elymas right in the eyes and called him the opposite of what his name meant (son of Jesus) by saying he was a child of the devil who was filled with deceit and fraud. Paul asked him if he would ever stop perverting the ways of the Lord. Paul then called out to Elymas telling him the Lord laid his hand of punishment upon him and he will become blind. Instantly, mist and darkness came over his eyes and he began groping to find someone’s hand so he could be led around. When the governor saw what Paul had done in the name of the Lord, he became a believer. Paul and the other travelers left Paphos for Pamphylia and the port town of Pisidia. At that point John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia. Barnabas held a higher position than Paul because he was actually a delegate from the mother church in Jerusalem. We will see him allow Paul to take the front on this journey and let him lead. Having most likely let the leaders of the synagogue know they were there, they attended services at the synagogue on the Sabbath. After the usual two readings from the Old Testament; one from the Law and one from the Prophets, they were invited to share a message of encouragement for the people. Paul began by presenting things of the Messiah claimed in the Old Testament. One - the coming of the Messiah, Two-His rejection, crucifixion and His resurrection from the dead, and Three- what all that means and how it impacted them. Paul began by addressing the crowd as “Men of Israel “ meaning the Jews and “God fearing Gentiles” of course addressing the Gentiles. Paul went on to describe the history of their ancestors journey being led out of Egypt by God through Moses. He recounted their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, followed by God destroying seven nations in Canaan giving that land to Israel. That journey took a total of 450 years. Then God gave them judges to rule over them until the people began begging for a king and God made Saul king. Saul was son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin and reigned for forty years. After that, God replaced Saul with David as king. God spoke of David as follows; “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.” Paul went on to say, “And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel!” Paul spoke of John the Baptist and his teaching that all the people of Israel needed to repent of their sins, turn to God and be baptized. He reminded them what John the Baptist said near the end of his ministry, “Do you think I am the Messiah? No I am not! But he is coming soon - and I am not even worthy to be his slave and untie the sandals on his feet.” Paul re-addressed the crowd as “Brothers - you sons of Abraham, and also you God fearing Gentiles” He said to them, “this message of salvation has been sent to us!” He explained how the people of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the one foretold by the prophets but rather condemned Him. By doing what they did, they fulfilled what the prophets foretold and those words are part of what is read every Sabbath. (like Peter and Stephen, Paul also blamed them for the killing of Jesus) Paul continued by saying the leaders in Jerusalem had no legal reason to execute Jesus but they demanded Pilate do it anyway. He explained how when their actions fulfilled the teaching of the prophets, Jesus was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb. But God raised Jesus from the dead and over many days, He appeared to the ones who had traveled with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. Those who traveled with Jesus are now witnesses to the people of Israel telling them all Jesus did. With all that being said, Paul spoke saying, “And now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our ancestors, and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. “ (it is thought that this time Jesus being raised means His being exalted. This is supported by the fact when speaking of Jesus being raised from the dead , it states “raised from the dead”) Paul went on to quote Psalm 2 verse 7 (the same words are given in Hebrews 1:3 and others) This is a confusing verse as it is given two ways. First In the New American Standard Bible and the King James Bible; “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “Thou are My Son, Today I have begotten Thee.” However, the NLT, NIV reads; “I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my Son, today I have become your Father.” The Father is speaking of Jesus and of the day Jesus was begotten by the Father. Both ways the verses are shown reflect Jesus as THE Son of God. If we look at the verse with begotten in it we know Scripture called Jesus of the only begotten Son of God. God had only one Son who was begotten of the Father. For God promised to raise Him from the dead not leaving Him to rot in the grave. Another Psalm declares “You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.” Acts 36 clarifies the fact that the psalm is not talking about David because after David died and was buried with his ancestors, his body decayed. The psalm (Psalm 16:10b) is telling us about another person who God raised from the dead and whose body did not decay, namely Christ. Paul addressed the listeners again calling them, “Brothers” telling them they had come to proclaim the Good News that through Jesus there is forgiveness for their sins. They were told everyone who believes in Him is made right with God which is something the Law of Moses could never do. The Law of Moses was what they lived by but there was no forgiveness of sin in it. The Law pointed to the need of a Savior which is Jesus. Paul again brought up the words given to the prophets; “Be Careful! Don’t let the prophets’ words apply to you. For they said, “Look you mockers, be amazed and die! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.” When Paul finished, the people begged him to return the following week and speak to them of these things again. Many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas who urged them to rely on the grace of God. They returned the following week and almost the entire city came to hear them preach the word of the Lord. As we have read many times, the Jews response to the large crowds was the same. When the Jews saw the huge crowds, they became jealous so they slandered Paul and argued against everything he said. The Jews, of course, rejected Paul’s teaching as they did with Jesus, and anyone else who proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah who is the way to be made right with God. Instead of a debate or searching for the truth, they lied and bullied to get their way. Paul and Barnabas responded to their tactics by saying, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. For the Lord gave us this command when He said, “I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corner of he earth.” Why did they first need to offer the word of the lord to the Jews? Because scripture had to be fulfilled. The coming of the earthly kingdom of the Lord depended on how the Jewish people responded to Christ’s coming and only when Israel rejected the Good News could Paul become the teacher of he Gospel to the Gentiles. The promises of the Messiah and prophesies are all based in the Old Testament and are Jewish in origin and therefore the first effort in sharing the Gospel was reserved for the Jews. When the Gentiles heard that, they were very glad and gave thanks to the Lord for His message and for all who were chosen to receive eternal life. With that, the Lord's message spread across the region. The Jews were all the more angry and used their influence to reach high ranking religious women and leaders of the city to stop Paul. They gathered a mob to attack Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town. As a sign of rejection, Paul and Barnabas shook the dust from their feet and went to the town of Iconium. The believers were filled with joy and full of the Holy Spirit. |
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