Latest / Scripture Central / Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Jul 24 - Jul 30) Acts 16–21

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Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Jul 24 - Jul 30) Acts 16–21 · Scripture Central

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Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to Come
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Follow Me Insights with Taylor and Tyler presented by Scripture
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Central. We use a lot of visuals in our
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videos, So if you want to see the visuals, we invite you to
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find us on YouTube. Thanks for listening and enjoy.
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I'm Taylor. And I'm Tyler.
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This is Scripture Central's Come, Follow Me insights this
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week at 16 through 21. We are going to cover a lot of
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mileage and a lot of years. And a lot of territory.
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And yes, this. This is Paul's second and third
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missionary journeys. Now just to get a a 30,000 foot
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overview, you have the first missionary journey that we
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covered in last week's lesson. And keep in mind that that one
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was from Acts 13 through Acts 14 verse 26.
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It covered roughly 1400 miles. And it was.
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It was the shortest of the three missionary journeys for sure.
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The second journey that we're going to begin with today goes
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from Acts 15, verse 36 through 18, verse 22.
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It's going to cover three years, 3 1/2 years.
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It's going to be approximately 3000 miles in length.
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And a lot of that walking. And a lot of that walking all
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through Syria, Turkey. And then over coming down
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Greece, it's it's a lot of painful miles.
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The third journey is going to be from chapter 18, verse 23
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through chapter 20, verse 38. This one's going to be 4 years,
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little over four years, roughly 3500 miles, and once again
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covering a lot of the similar. Territory from the second
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journey, which we don't usually talk about when we're reading
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these scriptures. We we talk about the exciting
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events along the way, and we don't talk about the intense
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journey, the difficulty connecting those big stories
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that we love to tell. This would be multiple nights,
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like hundreds of nights where you're out.
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On the wayside, sleeping in terrible weather with mosquitoes
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and bugs or cold or hot or sun, they're dealing with a lot.
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And it just doesn't come out in the story.
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This daily sacrifice that missionary that this missionary
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group is making, which brings us now to our day today, so many of
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you spend so much time and energy.
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Every single day doing these common things that are easy to
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overlook, and nobody's going to come and give you credit for it
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or applaud you for it. So for any of you who maybe feel
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overlooked or forgotten, not recognized, not appreciated, not
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valued, remember that the angels up in heaven, they they're
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they're watching everything. And perhaps the journey is as
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important as the destination in many cases here.
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And and what you're sacrificing along the way is part of our
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test of mortality. And so let's let's jump onto
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this missionary journey with with Paul.
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And to begin this one, this second mission, we need to
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actually go back to the ending of Chapter 15, the last few
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verses, because that's where. They they decide to embark on
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this second journey, starting in verse 36.
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It says, and some days after Paul said under Barnabas.
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This is after that Jerusalem conference where they made that
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compromise. He said let us go again and
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visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word
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of the Lord and see how they do so it's hey mission companion,
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let's go retrace our steps and Barnabas is all excited to go.
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And he's also excited to take John Mark with them again in
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verse 37. But Paul in 38 says he thought
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it not good to take him with them who departed from them from
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Pamphilia and went not with them to the work.
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So Paul has this, a little bit of a chip on his shoulder
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against John Mark saying no, he is not coming with us, he he
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abandoned our mission last time, why would we take him again?
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And verse 39 says. And the contention was so sharp
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between them that they departed asunder one from the other.
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And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed into Cyprus.
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And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by
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the brethren unto the grace of God.
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And he went through Syria and Solicia, confirming the
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churches. So if you were to look at the
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map instead of taking the ship out to Cyprus.
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He and Silas went north by land instead of by sea like Barnabas
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and John Mark did. What's important to note here?
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If you look carefully at Paul's writings, even though there was
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this disagreement about who should be in the companionship,
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Paul and Barnabas do not seem to have like a final asundering.
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They seem to continue to be beloved friends.
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Paul speaks in very high and glowing terms about Barnabas in
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other letters. So.
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What I like about this is it shows the humanity of these
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early church leaders that people often have different opinions
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about how to do things, and Even so, it didn't mean that the
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relationship was entirely broken.
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I don't know how they may have resolved things, but it just
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gives me hope. Like if I've had a disagreement
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with somebody, it doesn't have to be permanently scarring to
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our ongoing relationship. If you've ever worked.
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In a presidency or in any companionship, in a mission
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setting or in family relationships where maybe
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there's some some dissension, contention, difference of
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opinion, that's really intense. I love this part of the story
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because it you would think, well, wait a minute now.
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Barnabas and John Marker going this way, and Paul and Silas are
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going this way, going north, they're all going to fail on
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their mission because they had this contention at the outset
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and and now it's a failed mission and yet you're going to
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find that the 2nd missionary journey of Paul and Silas is
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extremely successful. To me that is a sign of God's
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goodness and God's grace. That it really is His work that
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we're embarking in now. Would it have been better to not
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have the contention? Absolutely.
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But does the contention prevent God from still using them as
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instruments in His hands to perform miracles?
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No. And as that is true for them
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2000 years ago, it's true for you and me today that even if
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our relationships aren't exactly perfect, if we'll put our focus
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on the Savior and plead with Him to use us as an instrument in
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His hands. He is still well able to do his
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work, even even when that instrument might be a little
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more dull than it otherwise could have been.
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He's That's part of the miracle of of the Lord's coming forth of
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the gospel, spreading of the gospel.
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Let's remind you that we have some useful maps both online and
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at the back of your print scriptures of the Bible, where
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you can trace Paul's second and third missionary journeys
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because. What we have here is a lot of
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mention of names and locations. I don't know about you, but
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sometimes it's a little overwhelming for me where
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there's a lot of locations mentioned where I don't
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immediately know where they are. So we recommend bookmarking the
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maps and as the names pop up you can follow along.
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One other additional resource, if you will put it down in the
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description where you can see all the places highlighted on an
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interactive map is what is called Scriptures dot BYU.
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Dot Edu mapscript and you click on X and you can see all these
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places highlighted on a map. So as Taylor was mentioning,
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it's so helpful if you can have this kind of overview and watch
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the journey unfold. This is a very, very rough
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sketch of the Mediterranean region.
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So here's Greece. Here's modern day Turkey.
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Here's modern day Syria, and here's the modern day Israel.
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So we're starting this missionary journey from Antioch
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and watch as Paul is guided and directed by the Spirit.
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So he's going to come up this way because Barnabas and John
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Mark went. This way to retrace their their
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first missionary journey. So let's begin in chapter 16,
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verse one. Then came he to Derby and
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Lystra. Remember when he healed the lame
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man in Derby and Lystra from his first missionary journey when
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they wanted to worship him as a God?
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And then they stoned him and he picks up a new disciple here
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named Timostheus. So that's the Greek name.
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The English name would be Timothy.
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So the 1st and 2nd epistles to Timothy, it's assumed, are to
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this man. He's the son of a certain woman,
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which was a Jewess and believed, but his father was a Greek.
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So you have a Pagan man who married this Jewish woman and
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their son is Timothy, and so Paul picks him up as a
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missionary journey or as a missionary companion.
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In in verse three it says him would Paul have to go forth with
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him and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews which
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were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a
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Greek. And so a circumcision was the
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mark of the Jewish identity for a man.
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What I love about Timothy's name is that in Greek it means
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honored of God, and we will see that in his missionary efforts
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and also the epistles dedicated to him.
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That we can see how God honors his disciples who seek to honor
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him. Love it.
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So we've come up here and we've now retraced our steps from
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Derby, Lystra, Iconium. We're going to go through
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Antioch. So those are the main cities,
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not counting the ones down on Cyprus that they covered and had
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their success on the first missionary journey.
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So we're done with Antioch and now we head east now.
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This is fascinating. Watch this journey when they had
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gone through Frisia and the region of Galatia and were
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forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia.
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So we're talking about Asia. This was considered kind of Asia
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right here. I can write that on the board
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you have an area called Kapadokia here and up in this
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region was called Galatia. And it comes from the word for
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Celts. So you know you have Celts up in
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the area of France and Britain. What Many Celts had immigrated
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over to this area, and the Roman Empire named this area where
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Celts were living as Geltia or Galatia.
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In fact, we have a letter that Paul writes to this region
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called the Letter to the Celts or the Letter to the Galatians.
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So here we are, the Holy Ghost. Told them don't preach the word
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in Asia. So we've we've been heading this
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direction and So what did they do after we were come to miss
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Ya? They essage to go into bethinia
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but the spirit suffered them not so they decide.
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Okay, the Holy Ghost has has made it clear we're not supposed
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to preach the word here. So let's go up to Bethinia,
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which is up here by the Black Sea.
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It turns out in the ancient world, ancient Mediterranean
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world, the word black and red had geographical designations.
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Black would indicate north and red the South.
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And that's where we get the phrase you basically have North
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Sea and South Sea. So the Black Sea would be on the
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North and the Red Sea on the South.
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So can you picture being on this journey?
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We're like, okay, we're not supposed to preach the gospel
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here. Let's go to Bethenia.
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And so we start working that direction.
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And after the started on that, that path, it says in the bottom
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of verse 7. But the Spirit suffered them not
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at this point. They then turn West and they're
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going to head out to the coastline again.
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And they passing by, Misia came down to Troas.
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So you've heard of the Trojan War.
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So they're passing by the ancient ruins of where the
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Trojan War happened. But there was a a community in
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their day called Troas that was built nearby.
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The reason why this is such a crucial place strategically is
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that it controlled the trade routes going up from the
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Mediterranean into the Black Sea and so.
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The Trojan War and later Trojas became important commercial
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centers because they protected where all this traffic could go
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in and out of these areas. So I wonder if this first part
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of the second missionary journey could have applicable value to
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some of us today. Has there ever been a time in
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your life where you've you've had a really good idea and you
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felt like it was a flash of brilliance?
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I'm going to go do this. I'm going to pursue this.
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Maybe it was a relationship. Maybe it was an educational
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opportunity. Maybe it was a career.
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Maybe it was a move to a different location, different
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city or state, and it and it's all exciting.
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And then it turns out that that isn't where you needed to be.
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And then you get another idea. Okay.
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Maybe. Maybe that was to help me go
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here. And so you go a different
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direction only to find out. Nope, that isn't right.
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I love watching these first few verses here because it would
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have been so easy for these missionaries to just sit down on
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the side of the road and say, fine Lord, you're telling us
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what not to do, but you're not telling us what to do when we
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keep trying. But it seems like we can't
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figure this out, so we'll just sit here on the side of the road
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until you give us the direction of where to go rather than
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telling us where not to go. I love the fact that these
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missionaries. Just kept going.
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They kept trying. They gave it their best effort,
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their best thinking, and they put the energy into doing that.
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And at the end of the day, they end up here on the coastline and
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they still don't know what to do.
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But they've been going. I think that's a powerful
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principle for us to consider today is it's easier for the
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Lord to steer a ship that's moving than a ship that's stuck
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at the dock. It doesn't do you any good to
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turn the steering whirl wheel when it's stopped.
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You've you've heard this analogy before.
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This story to me is one of the best examples in scripture of
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that principle that we can apply in our life to say get up, do
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your best thinking and if the Lord hasn't given you a specific
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direction, go and let him guide you along the way.
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So here we are in trous in verse nine it says a vision appeared
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to Paul in the night and there stood a man of Macedonia and
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prayed him saying. Come over into Macedonia and
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help us. Macedonia is northern Greece up
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here. So come over here and help us as
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the vision at that point. When you wake up the next
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morning and Paul says, hey, I had a vision there was a man
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over in Macedonia saying we're thinking finally the Lord has
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given us direction, we're going to cross the sea.
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Then we're going to have success because we're going to start
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preaching the gospel and it picks up in verse 10 and and
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verse 10 is a a beautiful. Transition point.
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You'll notice the pronoun here. And after he had seen the vision
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immediately, we endeavored to go into Macedonia.
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I love how you pause to look at very specific words.
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Sometimes we just read over very quickly.
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It's this little 2 letter word that could be super compelling
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to help us understand something about the composition of this
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text. On 2 levels, so the first level
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is. More of a a housekeeping thing.
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It's fascinating that Luke, the author of the book of the Acts,
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he now for the first time in 16 chapters, is using a pronoun
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that includes him. And every time it seems that
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Paul comes to trust, Luke seems to join the missionary party.
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It seems to be his hometown. He's now traveling with Paul.
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And sometimes we we miss that because everything previous to
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this was the pronouns are third person now it's first person
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plural. He's in the group, He's now
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journeying with Paul. The second thing that I think is
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fascinating with this is that Paul is the only one who had the
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vision and immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia.
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Implies that not everybody in the group needs to have the same
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vision leadership. Is about getting direction,
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having a vision, sharing the vision with the leader, with the
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people you're leading and them having the meekness and the
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humility to trust your connection with heaven and to
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follow. So here's Paul, this, this great
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missionary, this great apostle. He shared it with him.
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And these people, including Luke, now are saying we're with
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you, let's go. We don't have to have the vision
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ourselves. We're going to trust you and
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we're going to move forward. We live in an age where we
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glorify leadership, and for good reason.
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Great leaders can do great things if they have great
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followers. We don't spend a lot of time
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glorifying or honoring followers.
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And here Luke and others are very good followers, as Tyler
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was talking about and we think about being disciples means we
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are followers of Jesus. And I've often wondered, aren't
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the best leaders first, the best followers?
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Look at Peter. He was a very good follower and
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because of that Jesus knew he could trust him to lead out when
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Jesus was no longer physically available.
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And let's on on that same note, Taylor, let's just state the
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obvious. The greatest leader, the
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greatest teacher of all time, the Lord Jesus Christ, also
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happened to be the greatest follower, the greatest disciple,
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the most. Covenantally loyal of all time,
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He did everything that his father asked him to do, which
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made him such a profound leader. So if you're if you're
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struggling with your own leadership, perhaps you could
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spend not all of your time studying leadership principles,
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but perhaps studying principles of discipleship.
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Personal discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ and keep your
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focus on him and see how He lived his life and try to mirror
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that. And watch what happens with your
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capacity to lead and people's willingness to follow.
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So now what? What would you all expect?
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We've had this vision. We get over to Macedonia and you
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would think based on the vision, we're going to get off the boat
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and they're going to be people holding banners saying welcome
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to Greece, welcome to Europe, missionaries, We want to be
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baptized, right? We're taking the gospel for the
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first time in scripture from Asia, what we today call Asia.
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Over into Europe, as we cross into Greece, into Macedonia and
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it says we lose. From Troas, we came with a
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straight course to Semethracia and the next day to Neopolis,
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this new town. And there's no there.
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There's no group they're saying teach us we we want to be
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disciples. And from fence to Philippi which
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is the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony.
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And we were in that city abiding certain days.
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Are you sensing the flow here? They're they're moving along and
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nothing is really happening. They're in action without any
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consequence. And I can picture them coming up
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to Paul, maybe a few evenings as they're gathering around for
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their evening meal. After a couple weeks saying
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Paul, that vision you had, Are you sure?
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Is that just a silly dream? Because it I'm not seeing
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anything happening over here. I love the fact that they stay
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the course. Just because the Lord finally
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does give you a direction of where to go doesn't always mean
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that you're going to experience instantaneous success and
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receive a witness after the trial of your faith, immediately
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after you've you've proven faithful.
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Sometimes it takes certain days. So verse 13.
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Says on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a Riverside where
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prayer was want to be made and we sat down and speak unto the
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women which resorted to there. So now we get introduced to our
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first European convert and she happens to be a woman, a seller
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of purple. Her name is Lydia verse 14.
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It purple is a very difficult product to make in the ancient
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world. Often you had to get it from
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Urick shells. You'd have to get a lot of them
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and. To squeeze out this, this purple
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dye that would be in the shelves, and usually it was a
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very expensive item for people to purchase.
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So Lydia apparently is working in the luxury industry, likely
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selling clothing to rulers and very wealthy people.
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And notice that when she's baptized, it's not just her
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verse 15, her household, which is interesting in a very
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patriarchal world. We mean this in the sense of.
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The technical sense where was often male dominated, you would
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often have a man who is the head of the household, and here it
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seems to be Lydia and her household, which is unusual in
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the ancient world, but she seems to be somebody of prominence or
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means or at least well respected because of the kind of
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profession she's in to provide luxury goods for those in the
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community. So our first European convert,
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Lydia and her household. To join the the the church and
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in verse 16 it says and it came to pass.
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As we went to prayer a certain damsel possessed with the spirit
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of divination met us which brought her masters much gain by
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Sue saying so here's this this damsel who who does this Sue
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saying she comes up and her her message to the people in verse
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17 is these men are the servants of the Most high God which show
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unto us the way of salvation. It's an odd thing for a a damsel
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possessed to say again. Remember, the devils will
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sometimes tell truth. Not because they're truthful,
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not because they're beings of of light that are trying to lead
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you to towards that which is things as they really are.
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They will only tell the truth to get you to trust them, because
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then they'll tell you something that's not true.
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The deception will always come, and she's doing this for many
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days. And it finally grieves Paul to
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the point where he turns and he says I command thee in the name
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of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
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And he came out the same hour. Now a few chapters ago he had
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done something like this without mentioning Jesus and people
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thought Paul was a God. Well now he has a success in the
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name of Jesus, but the the men now have lost their source of
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income and they're not very happy.
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We see this happen a lot to Paul.
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Where in his preaching of the truth, he creates challenges for
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people who are benefiting from false religious practice, like
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false idols or false susaying, and suddenly they're now in
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trouble yet again. So the magistrates of the city
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grab Paul and Silas and you'll notice it says in verse 20 they
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brought them. So Paul and Silas were mentioned
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verse 19. So Luke is not included in this.
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Luke wasn't arrested as well, so now he's back to the third
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person. He's telling their story of what
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happened to them. They brought them to the
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magistrate saying these men being Jews, to exceedingly
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trouble our city, and they teach customs which are not lawful for
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us to receive, neither to observe being Romans.
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Now we need to pause here for just a second and discuss very
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briefly, the significance of Pagan worship versus this
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Christian doctrine that's now being taught by these
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missionaries. In the Pagan pantheon of gods
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that the Romans have basically stolen from the Greeks and then
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just changed all of the the Greek names for the gods and
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goddesses in that pantheon to Latin names, So Zeus becomes
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Jupiter for instance. They have all of this wide open
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belief you can worship all these gods and goddesses and in fact
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later on and we're going to see. That they are so excited about
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worshipping that they even have an altar for an unknown God,
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just in case we missed one. So it wouldn't come across as
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strange to have some group of missionaries come into your city
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and say, hey, we want to teach you about this God and our God.
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His name is Jesus Christ and he's the Son of Heavenly Father.
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That they wouldn't. That wouldn't be disturbing to
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them. Wouldn't be confusing at all,
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but what would be challenging, of course is.
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And there's only one God to worship, and all these other
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ones don't exist. That's the problem is these
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missionaries aren't just teaching another God to add to a
27:09
pantheon of gods that and goddesses that you can worship
27:13
this God. The first commandment is thou
27:16
shalt have no other gods before me, and the 2nd commandment is
27:21
thou shalt not worship idols so. You can see what the magistrates
27:27
are now claiming. They're teaching customs which
27:30
are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe.
27:32
Being Romans, they are defiling all of our gods and goddesses in
27:37
favor of their one and only God, and this isn't good for us as
27:41
Romans, so they're pretty upset. And to put things in context to
27:45
to be a little bit empathetic to these individuals, I recognize
27:48
that they're pagans, but in their worldview they believe
27:51
there was a different God or goddess assigned to.
27:54
Almost any natural phenomenon you might experience wind, the
27:59
waves, the growing of crops, birth and death.
28:02
And that every God had a responsibility and you to make
28:04
sure you were in the good graces of that God, so that wherever
28:09
you were geographically or whatever stage of life, that
28:12
things would go well for you. And if you didn't stay in the
28:16
good grace of those gods, things would go poorly.
28:18
So you can imagine being raised up in that environment.
28:21
You wouldn't want to offend any God, because what if you go from
28:24
land to sea and you forgot to do your your services towards
28:28
Poseidon? You might go drown out at sea,
28:31
and that's the challenge they face because they now feel the
28:34
sense of not only the loss of income, but if there's only one
28:37
guard got in charge. What if we happen to be wrong
28:39
and some of these other gods still really do do exist, and
28:42
we've now offended them? Our lives will go poorly, so we
28:45
should probably just be slightly empathetic to these ancient
28:47
people. That both their livelihoods and
28:50
their sense of self was all being put under threat, and it
28:54
takes time to update your thinking with new ideas.
28:57
Absolutely So it says that in verse 22 the multitude rose up
29:02
together against them, and the magistrates rent off their
29:05
clothes and commanded to beat them.
29:08
And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast
29:11
them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely.
29:15
This is fascinating because Paul didn't.
29:18
Tell them that he's a Roman citizen.
29:21
So is or sorry, sorry, so is Silas.
29:24
He All he had to say is I'm a Roman, and they would not have
29:30
have beat them, but he allowed it to take place.
29:36
And then at midnight that night, verse 25, Paul and Silas prayed
29:39
and sang praises unto the unto God.
29:41
And the prisoners heard them. And then there was an
29:44
earthquake. The foundation of the prison was
29:47
shaken. All the doors were opened and
29:49
every man's bands were loosed. So the jailer, the keeper of the
29:53
prison, he wakes up and he saw the prison doors open.
29:57
Or he thinks, Oh my gosh, I'm going to be executed.
30:00
I'm full of shame. So he pulls out his sword, But
30:04
Paul cried, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.
30:10
So we called out for a light, and he sprang in, and he came
30:13
trembling, and he fell down before Paul and Silas.
30:16
And brought them out and he said, Sirs, what must I do to be
30:21
saved? Now you can take that phrase two
30:25
ways. You can take it physically or
30:29
spiritually. What do I need to do to save my
30:31
life? Because these doors are open.
30:33
All of the What do I need to do? I think it goes a lot deeper
30:38
than just how do I save my life to the spiritual realm of what
30:42
must I do to be saved? He senses something.
30:45
Perhaps he had listened to their prayers and their singing and it
30:48
struck A chord with him and he's he's now going to them.
30:51
Of all the prisoners, they're the ones who are saying do
30:54
thyself no harm. So it comes to them, what must I
30:56
do to be saved? And they said believe on the
31:00
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.
31:05
Now can we just point out here there's a little concept that
31:10
that creeps up every once in a while in discussing.
31:14
Doctrine, discussing scriptures, discussing principles.
31:19
It's this idea called proof texting.
31:22
Proof texting is where you take one verse or one chapter, one
31:28
isolated concept from scripture and you read it and then you
31:32
pull it off the page and you elevate it above everything
31:35
else. And then you you prove your
31:38
point with that one. Isolated verse or a couple of
31:42
verses that say basically the same thing.
31:45
Proof texting is what happens when people get into Bible
31:47
bashes or when they get into serious contention over
31:51
doctrine. It's it's almost like a
31:53
doctrinal chess match where somebody will proof text this
31:58
verse and say, no, all you have to do to be saved is believe on
32:03
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
32:05
It's right there. See, that's all you have to do.
32:09
And if that's the case, then why do we have any other scriptures?
32:12
That's the point. We've shared this before.
32:14
It's probably worth writing down again, really briefly.
32:17
The word context is what goes with the text, the surrounding
32:23
environment and meaning. And without context the text is
32:28
a con. We can get tricked or messed up.
32:31
And so the more context you have, the more likely you are to
32:35
get to accuracy in meaning making.
32:38
So to interpret the context of this story and of this
32:43
statement, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ less.
32:46
Somebody might be tempted to pull that verse off and say, Oh
32:49
well then why am I trying to keep all these commandments?
32:51
All I have to do is believe in Jesus Christ and I'm I'm saved.
32:54
That's what he said right there. The context is, here's a jailer
32:59
who is ready to to do himself in and he's asking them what must I
33:03
do to be saved? And Paul doesn't give him. 20
33:07
Steps He gives him The first step You have to believe faith
33:13
in the Lord Jesus Christ is step one, and if you start on that
33:16
journey, we'll work with you. That is the journey that leads
33:19
to salvation. So it's that idea of don't don't
33:24
hyper focus or fixate on one verse or one concept.
33:30
Or one step on the path of salvation.
33:33
And you'll notice if if you were ever in a discussion with
33:36
somebody who who wants to prove text, it's not helpful to
33:41
disagree and say, no, that verse is not right.
33:44
Because we like all these scriptures.
33:46
We say, yes, that is true, but let's keep reading, let's read
33:50
all of it in its context. So you keep reading and it says,
33:54
And they speak unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were
33:56
in his house. Remember that concept that
33:59
Taylor talked earlier with Lydia and her household?
34:01
Same thing here, with his jailer and his house.
34:04
And he took them the same hour of the night and wash their
34:07
stripes and he was baptized, he and all his straight way.
34:14
That's this. That's amazing for so many
34:16
reasons that immediately they're willing to choose to follow
34:20
Jesus. I also love that there's two
34:22
washings going on here if the jailer who needs to be washed in
34:26
baptism. First washes the servants who
34:30
have been maltreated. That's it's beautiful.
34:34
So now the next day the magistrates sent the sergeants
34:38
saying, let those men go, just let them go now, Paul said,
34:46
verse 37. They have beaten us openly,
34:50
uncondemned being Romans, and have cast us into prison.
34:54
And now do they thrust this out privily or privately?
34:56
Secretly. Nay verily, but let them come
35:00
themselves and fetch us out. Now we see perhaps the
35:06
motivation for why Paul allowed himself and Silas to be beaten,
35:13
because Paul knows he's not going to stay in Phillip.
35:15
I longterm. He's on a missionary journey
35:18
he's passing through and he knows how the people of that
35:22
city. Are It's the capital city of the
35:25
region. It's huge.
35:26
So it's their metropolis in Macedonia.
35:30
And he knows how the people feel about the their these people who
35:35
have joined the church, Lydia and her household and now the
35:38
jailer is part of that. It's almost as if Paul allowed
35:42
himself to take some stripes so that now when the magistrates
35:48
have to come themselves to get him out, he can say.
35:52
We're Romans and you did this to us, at which point they're
35:57
probably going to be a little more careful in how they treat
36:00
Lydia and the other new converts there.
36:04
They they know that Paul has been illtreated and that anytime
36:10
Paul could bring that to higher authorities attention and they
36:15
could be in trouble. So we I don't know that for
36:18
sure. But it sure looks like that
36:21
might be what's going on. So they came, they brought them
36:25
out, they went out of the prison in verse 40 and entered into the
36:29
House of Lydia. And then they departed.
36:32
So now in chapter 17, we start working our way South in in
36:36
Greece. Now when they had passed through
36:38
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was
36:45
a synagogue of the Jews, so. This is Paul's custom as it
36:49
tells Universe 2 to enter into the synagogue.
36:51
First he was there 3 Sabbaths, reasoning with them out of the
36:55
scriptures, trying to convince these Jewish people that Jesus
37:00
is the fulfillment of all of their Old Testament scripture,
37:03
their Hebrew Scripture. And notice what his focus is in
37:06
verse three. In this effort he's opening and
37:09
alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again
37:13
from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you.
37:17
Is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one?
37:20
That the one you've been waiting for?
37:23
Well, some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas,
37:28
and of the devout Greeks a great multitude.
37:31
And of the chief women, not a few.
37:33
Have you noticed, by the way, that Luke is no longer on this
37:36
journey with them? Everything's back the way it
37:38
used to be, Which is? He's telling the story, so later
37:41
on he must have gotten the details from Paul or Silas or
37:45
others. So he's filling in the blanks
37:48
from a different location at this point.
37:51
But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy.
37:55
This is, this is a repeat theme. They they are envious at the
38:01
success that these missionaries are having.
38:03
And in the early days of our church in the Restoration, it
38:07
seems that that is a common theme.
38:09
Everywhere there would be success, it's the religious
38:13
leaders of other faith. Traditions that would be envious
38:18
and stir up the people and the leaders against the
38:22
missionaries, just exactly like what's happening here.
38:24
And what's interesting is we're about to see a riots going to
38:26
break out. And what's the claim that the
38:29
Christians have caused riots? That the Christians have caused
38:32
Uproar And it's just a sad thing.
38:35
We're often the people who are enacting the bad deeds will
38:39
often blame other people. For doing the very thing that
38:42
they are doing. That's what we see going on here
38:45
in the case of Jason is household who've been accused of
38:48
causing an uproar and the people get an uproar over it.
38:51
So they bring Jason, cuz he's the one who housed Paul and
38:54
Silas. And they bring Jason and certain
38:57
brethren unto the rulers of the city.
38:59
And we have this this major struggle.
39:04
So verse 10 says the brethren immediately send away Paul and
39:07
Silas by night unto Berea. Who coming?
39:10
Scissor went into the synagogue of the Jews, and these were more
39:15
noble than those in Thessalonica.
39:17
They received the word with all readiness and they searched the
39:20
scriptures daily whether those things were so.
39:23
So instead of starting an uproar, they say that's an
39:25
interesting claim you're making. I want to see if I can verify
39:29
and validate, and they turn to the scriptures instead of
39:32
turning to violence. What a beautiful pattern to
39:35
follow. What these men of Berea did,
39:37
these people. Of of the synagogue there.
39:39
Right, the the principle here is that whenever you receive new
39:42
information, instead of just having an immediate emotional
39:44
response of whatever it might be, anger or confusion, just
39:48
take the time to say let me investigate a little bit further
39:51
and act with rationality And as a child of God, and we still
39:55
unfortunately see that in the world today where people just
39:58
lash out over information, oftentimes, which is false
40:02
information, and people lash out without getting to the bottom of
40:05
what the truth really is. Unfortunately history repeats
40:08
itself. So we come to chapter 17, verse
40:12
13 and it says when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that
40:15
the word of God was preached to Paula Baria, they came to there
40:17
also and stirred up the people. We saw that in his first
40:20
missionary journey back in Ikonia and Antiochicidia, Derby
40:25
and Lystra it happens again here.
40:27
So the immediate the immediately the brother and send away Paul
40:30
to go as if it were by sea, but Silas and Timotheus abode there
40:36
still. So Paul leaves.
40:39
They brought Paul down to Athens in southern Greece, and he
40:45
receiving a commandment unto Silas and Temothias for to come
40:47
to him. With all speed they departed.
40:50
So now here's Paul, all alone in Athens waiting for his
40:53
companions to show up. And we get this amazing story
40:56
starting in verse 16. While he was waiting, his spirit
41:00
was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to
41:03
idolatry. So if if you've seen pictures of
41:07
if you've ever visited Athens, the Parthenon up on the hill,
41:11
and below that you have the Ariopagus or Mars Hill, it it is
41:16
a city that was completely devoted to the worship of the
41:21
pantheon of the Greek gods and goddesses.
41:24
That the we've mentioned before that the Romans have now changed
41:27
to Latin names, but here we are in Greece.
41:29
This is where it all started. Athens is the epicenter for this
41:34
Pagan worship of these particular this particular
41:38
pantheon of gods and goddesses. So the Parthenon is from the
41:42
Greek word Parthenos, which means the Virgin, and it was
41:45
dedicated to Athena, who was the chief or patron God for the
41:50
city. Of Athens.
41:52
But there are many other gods there.
41:53
And Paul is just like this world has just become completely
41:58
confused with all these disparate world views and
42:01
worship, all these different gods and goddesses.
42:04
And so he tries to insert himself to teach the truth.
42:07
So verse 17, here we go. He disputed in the synagogue
42:11
with the Jews and with the devout persons, and in the
42:14
market daily with them that met with him.
42:17
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics
42:20
encountered him, and some said, what will this babbler say?
42:24
So these are men who like to gather in the the agora or the
42:30
agora, the forum or in up on Mars Hill, and they love to just
42:35
sit around and talk about ideas, because it's all about what you
42:38
know, Gnosis. It's a it's a big deal to these
42:41
ancient Greeks. It's rooted clear back into
42:45
Plato and and Aristotle, and before them Socrates the this
42:50
expanding of the mind. So they're they're all sitting
42:53
there discussing ideas. And and Athens was essentially a
42:58
college town, actually one of the greatest university towns in
43:01
the ancient world. So people were not afraid to
43:04
hear new ideas necessarily and it was expected that people
43:09
would be generating or listening.
43:11
To new ideas. But of course, it would always
43:13
be a pretty heavy debate about whether people would agree with
43:18
this new idea or not. And we see that these
43:21
philosophers, these educated people, are already judging that
43:25
they don't think Paul has anything of substance or of
43:29
truth that they should be truly listening to.
43:31
And and and it's described beautifully in that middle part
43:34
of verse 18 when it says that their thought was he, Paul
43:38
seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods.
43:41
So. So we're going to listen to him.
43:42
This is, this is, this is going to be good entertainment, right?
43:46
Because he preached them to them, Jesus and the
43:48
resurrection. So they took him, and they
43:51
brought him into Ariopagus, which in translation is just
43:55
Mars Hill. And they said, may we know what
43:59
this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is?
44:02
And so he he begins In verse 22 Paul stood in the midst of Mars
44:07
Hill. And he said unto them.
44:09
Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too
44:13
superstitious. The the Greek word there you see
44:18
in your footnote most religious. You're very zealous for for your
44:22
worship. For as I pass by and beheld your
44:25
devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown
44:30
God. Here's this idea of.
44:34
On Mars Hill you you would have all these altars and all of
44:37
these idols with the idea being that Taylor mentioned before
44:40
each God or goddess has a jurisdiction over some part of
44:44
your life or part of nature or a patron God or goddess for your
44:50
city, in this case Athena, so she gets the big temple up on
44:54
the hill. You get this idea that if you
44:57
sacrifice and you please that God or goddess.
45:02
Their spirit can come down and occupy that idol you've made for
45:06
him or her and grant you all these blessings, but you have to
45:09
sacrifice. You have to please them.
45:11
But what if we missed 1:00? What if?
45:14
What if we left somebody out? We don't want some God up on the
45:19
Mount Olympus to to feel angry because we didn't sacrifice to
45:25
him. So they set up an altar to the
45:28
unknown God, and this actually. Is not unique to Mars Hill.
45:33
When one time we were over in Rome on on a little trip with
45:40
with some of my colleagues and Lincoln Blue Mell, he found an
45:44
altar with an inscription in Latin that was to an unknown God
45:50
in, in and that one's in Rome. I actually have heard of people
45:55
today in certain countries who have adopted the practices of
45:59
multiple religions. And their reasoning is, well, we
46:02
just want to make sure we've covered all of our bases.
46:04
Because if we do this religion. But they're not right.
46:08
And we do this religion and they're not right, but we do
46:10
this religion and this one's right, well, then we've we want
46:13
to make sure we're with our savings.
46:14
So we're kind of do everything. And Paul's preaching, actually
46:19
there's a very simple single choice that covers all the
46:22
options and it's Jesus. But this is such a massive mind
46:26
shift change for spending these people to say what?
46:29
Just one. Single God.
46:31
And none of these other ones exist.
46:32
They just don't know what to do with it.
46:34
Yeah, they're struggling so and. It's too disruptive not only to
46:37
their thinking of worldview, but also to their economy.
46:39
So a lot of challenges for why many of the people in the
46:42
ancient world struggled to initially want to adopt
46:45
Christianity. So you get him preaching Jesus
46:50
Christ as the unknown God to them because there's no idol or
46:55
and there's no altar to to the Savior on Mars Hill.
47:00
So he then starts in verse 24, God that made the world and all
47:04
things there in seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
47:07
dwelleth, not in temples made with hands.
47:11
If you look at the Greek word there and strong concordance or
47:15
a Greek lexicon, you'll see that he's not talking about the big
47:18
huge temple structure that he roaned.
47:21
He's talking about these shrines or these idols that these people
47:26
have built. The word is nouse.
47:29
He doesn't dwell in these, these idols that you've made with
47:32
hands, these shrines. Neither is he worshipped with
47:34
men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he give us to
47:38
all life and breath and all things, and then he does
47:43
something interesting. If you go over to this next
47:45
page, verse 28, For in him we live and move and have our being
47:50
as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also
47:55
his offspring. Now Paul is quoting Greek poet
47:59
poets to prove his point here. So can you see this, this idea
48:05
in this Greek poet saying we're the offspring of God?
48:10
And now here's Paul standing on Mars Hill pointing to all of
48:13
these idols saying, are you the offspring?
48:17
Did did any of them give life to you?
48:19
Are do you claim them as your parents in any way, shape or
48:23
form? And so he's trying to use.
48:27
Greek philosophy and Greek argumentation to prove a point.
48:32
You'll notice this isn't going to work very well.
48:35
And so in his future missionary labors and letters, he abandons
48:41
trying to philosophize with them, or trying to use their own
48:45
writings and their own poets to prove his point.
48:49
And he stays with. Teaching the Gospel of Jesus
48:53
Christ more directly, it'd. Be like me today, trying to use
48:56
physics or just philosophy all on its own to convince people
49:01
about Jesus without ever appealing to the revelations
49:04
that we have that directly teach about him.
49:07
And so I think Paul learns from his experience.
49:10
We did here. At one point in his letters he
49:12
says I'm a Greek to the Greek Jews to the Jews.
49:15
He tries to meet people on their cultural ground and communicate
49:18
with them in a way that makes sense.
49:20
And I think as you point out, he realizes I need to be teaching
49:24
more clearly and purely from the doctrines instead of trying to
49:28
do it indirectly through people's culture where they
49:31
might actually not fully understand the message of who
49:34
Jesus is. So we get to the end of his
49:40
speech here and he says in verse 31, because God has appointed a
49:46
day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness.
49:50
By that man whom he hath ordained, that's Jesus.
49:54
Where of he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath
49:57
raised him from the dead? Now at that point here you are
50:02
in the capital city of Pagan worship, Athens, and the capital
50:08
city, where Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle have done their their
50:12
work 400 years ago. And it's just spread into the
50:16
whole Mediterranean region from there.
50:18
And one of the doctrines that they.
50:20
They do not believe in is resurrection.
50:23
And that's what Paul is now preaching.
50:26
A God who came down and died and his father raised him from the
50:32
dead. This is this is a tough pill for
50:35
these Pagan worshippers to follow.
50:38
Until we hear, in one of Paul's later letters, foolishness to
50:42
the Greek. To them, it's like That's
50:44
foolish, Thought What? What religious person would want
50:46
to worship somebody who's dead? So notice the reaction, verse
50:50
32, when they had heard of the resurrection of the dead, some
50:54
mocked and others said, oh, we will hear the again on this
50:58
matter, We we want to hear more. We they they tend to like these
51:03
kinds of debate. It's probably entertaining to
51:05
them. So Paul departed from among
51:08
them, and it says, How be it? Certain men clave unto him, and
51:11
believed among them, which was Dionysius the Ariopagite and a
51:15
woman named Demaris. And others with them.
51:18
So he does gain a few disciples for the cause of Christ in
51:24
Athens, but largely he's rejected and in chapter 18 he
51:30
left Athens and came down to Corinth.
51:33
And there's where he stays with Aquila and Priscilla.
51:38
Now Corinth, the these two, they're tent makers, which is
51:41
Paul's craft or trade from before.
51:46
Corinth is this amazing city that sits between 2 seas down on
51:53
the Peloponnese of of Greece and there's about a mile stretch
51:58
between these two seas and so it's an ancient highway between
52:04
these two ports on either side. Tons of people would be coming
52:09
through this region every day. And every year.
52:13
So it's a busy, bustling place. Very cosmopolitan and frankly,
52:19
you're going to find everything in that ancient city that you
52:21
would find in a modern city today in terms of types of
52:24
people and activities, the good, the bad and the ugly.
52:28
So in verse four he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and
52:31
persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
52:33
So when Silas and Timothy were come from Macedonia, Paul
52:37
testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
52:41
And they oppose themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his
52:45
raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your heads, I
52:48
am clean from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.
52:53
In a reminder here, blood is a symbol of responsibility.
52:57
He's not talking literally that people are going to be bloodied
52:59
here. He's simply saying your sins are
53:02
your responsibility. And your sins will not be my
53:05
responsibility. We see this in the Book of
53:07
Mormon where Jacob is preaching and he says, I take off my
53:11
garments, I shake them before you.
53:13
He's essentially saying to the people, Jacob, that I've now
53:16
preached the truth. And if you commit sin, that's on
53:20
you, You're responsible, and the blood will be on your garments
53:24
and not mine. I'm not responsible for your
53:26
sin. So here's.
53:29
Here's Paul in the city where he he's facing rejection once again
53:33
from the leaders of the the Jewish synagogue and verse 9
53:38
says then speak the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision.
53:41
Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace.
53:44
For I am with thee, and no man shall sit on thee to hurt thee,
53:50
for I have much people in the city.
53:53
That's all Paul needs instead of going somewhere else.
53:56
It's like we've we've seen him pass through.
53:59
Dozens of cities on this missionary journey so far.
54:02
But Corinth is where he's going to put down some roots.
54:05
And it says in verse 11 that he stayed there for a year and six
54:09
months working with these people.
54:13
So from verse 12 to 17 you get this little interviewed in the
54:17
story where the the leaders of the Jews bring Paul before the
54:22
magistrates or to the judgment seat.
54:25
And they're saying things like this fellow persuadous men to
54:28
worship God contrary to the law. So you're seeing that Paul's
54:32
getting this from both sides, both from the Gentiles and from
54:36
the Jews. They're the Jews are now saying
54:39
you, he's he's perverting our law.
54:42
He's telling people to worship God totally differently than we
54:47
know we're supposed to from their perspective.
54:50
And so the leader, Galileo. At the very end of verse 17 has
54:57
said Galio cared for none of those things he he wasn't going
55:01
to get involved in their in their religious debate.
55:05
Yeah, a good politician does not get involved in religious
55:09
debates unless it's going to cause, unless the religious
55:13
debates are causing disruption to society.
55:16
And then in verse 18 he he stayed there a good while, and
55:19
then took his leave of the brethren and sailed fence into
55:23
Syria. And with him Priscilla and
55:26
Aquila having shorn his head in Kentria for he had a vow.
55:32
So he's taken a Nazarete vow which is the highest Jewish vow.
55:37
It's. And some of you might be
55:39
thinking, wait a minute, why? The reality is is again, he
55:44
doesn't see himself as apostate Jew as having left the Jewish
55:49
faith. He believes in certain elements
55:52
of that Jewish faith, but he understands that Jesus Christ
55:55
has fulfilled the law of Moses. But in this case, he shaved his
56:00
head. He's headed back to Syria, where
56:03
the missionary journey began, and he has this vow.
56:07
And we're going to see that at the in next week's lesson as
56:11
well, the extension of this vow. So in verse 22 we close off the
56:17
2nd missionary journey when he returns to Antioch.
56:21
And then verse 23 opens up the third missionary journey, the
56:27
longest of the three. And after he'd spent some time
56:30
there, he departed and went over all the country of Galatia and
56:33
Frisia in order strengthening all the disciples.
56:35
So now we're retracing those same steps that we did on the
56:38
2nd missionary journey, and we're introduced to Apollo's.
56:44
This man who was really learned, a Jew who is teaching amazing
56:48
things and he's so close. Priscilla and Aquila listen to
56:52
him preach and say, wow, he has amazing gifts, but he's got some
56:57
things that are just slightly off.
57:00
So after Priscilla and Aquila take Apollo Society and teach
57:05
him a few things and and redirect him, he becomes an
57:09
amazing missionary. The Apollo.
57:12
It really approves of Apollo later.
57:14
We see this in some of the letters where Paul says some of
57:16
Apollo's, some of Paul, but ultimately he's trying to say
57:20
we're all of Jesus Christ. So Apollo apparently became this
57:23
very powerful early Christian preacher.
57:25
So now we come up into Ephesus in chapter 19, and this is an
57:31
interesting story where where Paul runs into this group of men
57:36
who they've their disciples, they say we've we've been
57:40
baptized. And he asked them, did you
57:43
receive the Holy Ghost since you believed?
57:45
And they said, we we haven't even heard whether there be such
57:48
a thing as the Holy Ghost. What are you talking about,
57:50
Paul? What is that?
57:51
And then he asked, well, then how are you baptized?
57:53
And they said well unto John's baptism.
57:55
In other words, we went down into the water, and somebody
57:58
said a prayer and immersed us in the water.
58:00
We were baptized the way John baptizes and Paul says.
58:04
But the person who baptized you didn't say anything about the
58:06
gift of the Holy Ghost to you. No.
58:09
And so Paul then describes this in verse four.
58:14
He says, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance,
58:17
saying in the people that they should believe on him which
58:19
should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
58:24
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord
58:28
Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands
58:30
upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with
58:33
tongues and prophesied. And all the men were about
58:36
12:00. So now they have evidence that
58:39
they do have the Holy Ghost and it just is about the early
58:44
Christian Church did not have quite the same clarity of
58:47
structure like we understand in the modern day where we have
58:50
modern means of communication. So here's Paul having to go
58:53
about to make sure that people truly get the most updated and
58:57
correct teaching and ordinances. Very good.
59:01
So now we're an emphasis. Eastern or sorry, western
59:06
coastline of Turkey and it says in verse eight he went into the
59:11
synagogue and speak boldly for the space of three months.
59:14
Again he's giving the first opportunity everywhere he goes
59:17
to the Jews first, then we go to the Gentiles, verse 9 says, but
59:22
when diverse were hardened and believe not but speak evil of
59:26
that way before the multitude he departed from them and separated
59:30
the disciples disputing daily in the school of 1.
59:33
Tyrannis and this continued for the space of two years a.
59:39
Long time. This is longest time to stay.
59:41
He was 18 months in Corinth. Now he's going to be here in
59:45
Ephesus for for two years. Now.
59:48
Just a little side note here when he was in Corinth.
59:51
That's when he wrote his first missionary epistles to the
59:56
Thessalonians up in Thessalonica.
59:59
From his second missionary journey to get first and 2nd
1:00:02
tessalonies, probably our earliest New Testament writings
1:00:07
that we have of the 27 books were written during that second
1:00:10
missionary journey. Now here he is in in Ephesus and
1:00:14
he's going to write some letters to the Corinthian Saints where
1:00:18
he'd spent 18 months previously. So that's where you start to see
1:00:23
some of these epistles coming out is in these.
1:00:28
In these second and third missionary journeys.
1:00:30
So when he's writing letters, he's writing letters back to the
1:00:33
Galatians as well as two Romans who he has not yet met.
1:00:37
And again, the the way the New Testament is arranged for the
1:00:41
Pauline letters is according to the length of the work, so the
1:00:45
longest to shortest. So Romans, which may have been
1:00:48
one of the later letters of Paul, happens to show up first,
1:00:51
whereas Thessalonians, which are shorter, show up a little bit
1:00:54
later. So if you wanted to read
1:00:55
chronologically. Paul's writings you could start
1:00:58
with first and Second Thessalonians.
1:01:01
So now here we are in Ephesus for this two year time period
1:01:06
and it says verse 11. God wrote special miracles by
1:01:09
the hands of Paul. So you you get this incredible
1:01:12
experience with the handkerchiefs or the aprons
1:01:15
being taken from Paul to touch people and they were healed of
1:01:19
their evil spirits went out of them or the diseases.
1:01:24
Now there's this interesting story that takes place in verse
1:01:27
13 through 20 about certain Vagabond Jews who are exorcists
1:01:31
who take upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the
1:01:35
name of the Lord Jesus, saying we adjure you by Jesus, whom
1:01:39
Paul preaches so. They're trying to Co opt what
1:01:42
they think are these sacred powerful words, but I don't
1:01:45
really have the authority given to them from Jesus to speak in
1:01:50
the authority of the name of Jesus to to accomplish these
1:01:52
great deeds. So there are seven sons of Skiva
1:01:56
in verse 14, a Jew and a chief of the priest, which we're doing
1:02:00
this kind of exorcist work. And they say this to a man with
1:02:06
an evil spirit. And the spirit responded, and
1:02:08
said, Jesus, I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?
1:02:14
And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and
1:02:17
overcame them, and prevailed against them, so they fled out
1:02:20
of that house. Naked and wounded.
1:02:23
This is one of those stories that just kind of makes me
1:02:25
chuckle that you could imagine the early Christian listeners
1:02:28
getting the point here that if you misuse the power of God, it
1:02:34
will not work out well for you. You might find yourself fleeing
1:02:39
from the situation, wounded and naked.
1:02:41
And in this case, if you if you break this down the devil when
1:02:46
when he interacts with people, that's the effect.
1:02:51
He's always going to leave you exposed, vulnerable, uncovered
1:03:00
and wounded. He never come.
1:03:03
Satan never heals. He never blesses.
1:03:07
He never feeds. He never feels.
1:03:10
He always takes away. He never covers like the word
1:03:14
atonement in Hebrew means to cover.
1:03:16
What is the adversary done here he is on.
1:03:20
Covered. Just a nice reminder that when
1:03:26
you feel temptation to recognize who that temptation is coming
1:03:32
from and what his intent is, it's always to leave you naked
1:03:37
and wounded in one form or another.
1:03:40
So then the word spreads. Great things are happening.
1:03:44
And now the opposition comes up in verse 24 with Demetrius, A
1:03:48
silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana.
1:03:52
If you looked at the Greek word underlying shrines and strongs,
1:03:57
or in a Greek lexicon, you will find that it's the word nouse
1:04:00
that in other places has been translated as temples.
1:04:04
So a certain man, Demetrius the silversmith, he's made these
1:04:08
shrines or these temple, these idols for Diana.
1:04:13
Artemis, if you want the Greek name for her, it brought no
1:04:18
small gain unto the Craftsman. Well now Paul's preaching this,
1:04:22
this new faith, and all of a sudden business is really shut
1:04:25
down at the idol shops. And nobody's buying these
1:04:29
statues. And Diana is the patron goddess
1:04:33
for Ephesus. They have a huge temple to her.
1:04:36
It's one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
1:04:39
The Temple of Artemis. It's huge.
1:04:41
Like you go to the company town and you basically say this
1:04:44
company is now shut down. The people in that company town
1:04:48
are going to feel deeply, deeply threatened.
1:04:50
So they have the rest of chapter 19 is this huge assembly
1:04:55
gathered and for two hours they're crying out great is
1:04:59
Diana of the Ephesians. They're they're saying it's it's
1:05:03
this idea of Oh no, our patron goddess is going to be offended
1:05:06
by what's going on. So they're they're now.
1:05:09
Having this this public meeting to stop the the outcry against
1:05:15
her. It's actually it's mob
1:05:16
mentality. And again, we look at the
1:05:19
ancient world and we think, oh man, they do things differently
1:05:21
back then. In some ways, human nature has
1:05:24
not changed, changed much. Have you ever seen anywhere in
1:05:27
the world in the last? I don't know.
1:05:29
Time period where mob mentality has ruled and people are just
1:05:33
chanting things mindlessly because they're like this is my
1:05:36
tribe, this is my group, and I'm going to protect this group at
1:05:39
all costs without really thinking about what am I
1:05:41
chanting and what is the real threat if there is one or not.
1:05:45
And humans just have a way of getting tied into thoughtless
1:05:51
mob mentality which can really diminish individual agency.
1:05:57
So the way this ends this struggle is thanks to a town
1:06:01
clerk mentioned in verse 35 and he speaks to the group and he he
1:06:07
quiets them and he gives them reason again.
1:06:11
And verse 41 when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the
1:06:14
assembly. So thanks to this, this one guy,
1:06:17
we kind of pushed down this, this uprising from the mob.
1:06:22
So then in chapter 20 Paul now goes over to Greece.
1:06:27
So in verse seven it says upon the first day of the week when
1:06:31
the disciples came together to break bread, Paul Paul preached
1:06:34
under them, ready to depart on the Morrow, and continued his
1:06:37
speech until midnight. And this is a very applicable
1:06:39
story to a certain demographic. Oh, when I was a young man.
1:06:43
I'm like, this is the one set of passage in the scriptures I
1:06:46
truly identify with, where some preacher just goes on for a long
1:06:50
time and most of us are in a deep sleep.
1:06:53
So some of you watching this? Since this particular lesson has
1:06:58
gone on fairly long, because we're covering a lot of ground,
1:07:02
you might be relating perfectly with Uticus in this context,
1:07:06
because Paul is long and preaching, and so Uticus sunk
1:07:11
down with deep or with sleep, and he fell down from the third
1:07:15
loft and was taken up dead. Yeah, it seems like he's been
1:07:18
sitting out on the window. Sill falls asleep, and he's out
1:07:21
for the third floor. This is not a good situation to
1:07:26
preach somebody to to death, basically.
1:07:30
So Paul went down and fell on him, and embracing him said
1:07:33
trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him.
1:07:36
And when he therefore was come up again and had broken bread
1:07:39
and eaten and talked a long while even till break of day, so
1:07:43
he departed. And then they brought the young
1:07:45
man alive. So Uticus was raised from the
1:07:47
dead. And we think, oh, what a, what a
1:07:51
fun story. He gets raised for the dead to
1:07:53
hear, preaching for another 6 or 8 hours.
1:07:56
Yes. What?
1:07:57
What a fun story, right? Or or is there actually some
1:08:02
beautiful gospel symbolism in this story?
1:08:05
It could Uticas actually represent Adam and Eve, or
1:08:13
perhaps me and you, that we've fallen?
1:08:19
Three stories. We're dead.
1:08:21
There's nothing we can do. No, no dead body can say.
1:08:25
Everybody relax. I'm just going to raise myself.
1:08:28
It's done. It's over.
1:08:30
The fall introduces some problems that we can't fix
1:08:35
ourself and Paul now takes on this Christ like symbolic role
1:08:40
of the Savior, the Redeemer to come and restore life.
1:08:46
Into a situation where the person can't help themselves at
1:08:51
all. I love Utica beyond just kind of
1:08:54
the funny aspects of the story, but because I can see the power
1:09:00
of the redemption of Lord Jesus Christ in my own life reflected
1:09:05
off of this page and how grateful I am, though it's not
1:09:09
just a a fancy story, this idea that we're all going to die and
1:09:13
be laid in the grave. But the reality that death will
1:09:18
occur for all of us but the Lord Jesus Christ will come, and he
1:09:23
will raise us from the dead, and we will live again as such A
1:09:27
beautiful, beautiful promise, kind of contained symbolically
1:09:31
in this little story. And of course, so Paul, being
1:09:34
the good missionary he is, moves on to his next stage of his
1:09:37
missionary journey, strengthening the the Christian
1:09:41
converts that he had met in the past and also finding new ones.
1:09:45
So to bridge the gap, Paul visits many cities starting in
1:09:50
verse 131415 and 16, and he's he knows he's going to head back to
1:09:57
Jerusalem now, and he he knows some things.
1:10:01
He senses there they're going to be some struggles, Verse 22
1:10:05
says, Now behold, I go bound in the spirit under Jerusalem.
1:10:09
Not knowing the things that shall be foamy there I I sense
1:10:12
something's going to happen, but the Spirit is taking me to
1:10:16
Jerusalem. What's interesting here, if you
1:10:19
go on from verse say 23 all the way through verse 35, it's
1:10:23
almost like his final witness and testimony.
1:10:26
We find this kind of literary style in other aspects of
1:10:30
scriptures. Where somebody knows that their
1:10:33
life may be coming to an end and they give a final testimony or
1:10:37
summary. The things they've done and
1:10:39
often are trying to highlight that they have tried to be on
1:10:42
God's path have not wounded other people or taking things
1:10:46
from them. We see this from the prophet
1:10:48
Samuel King Benjamin's speech, Lehigh's final speech, for
1:10:53
example. We see in verse 33 I have
1:10:55
coveted No man's silver or gold or apparel.
1:10:58
Think about King Benjamin's speech where he had spent his
1:11:01
life serving people and he says, I have not been a burden to
1:11:04
people. I have tried instead to lift
1:11:06
people's burdens. And we also see from Paul
1:11:09
something similar where he has dedicated his life to God and
1:11:12
now is giving a final speech to this group of people who will
1:11:15
probably not hear from him again before he returns to Jerusalem,
1:11:18
which will create the closing chapter for sending him bound to
1:11:22
Rome. Which if if you consider that
1:11:24
you've, you've devoted your whole.
1:11:27
Energy over these last years to these people.
1:11:30
And like you said, you know you're probably not going to
1:11:32
come back with them. And look, for instance, in verse
1:11:37
28 and 29 even before that these, these precursor
1:11:42
prophecies of what's going to happen, Take heat, therefore
1:11:46
under yourselves, into all the flock, over the which the Holy
1:11:50
Ghost has made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he
1:11:54
has purchased with his own blood.
1:11:56
For I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves
1:12:01
enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
1:12:06
He's he's already sensing they're going to be wolves that
1:12:10
come in and and undo some of this work that that we've
1:12:16
started. So do everything you can to
1:12:18
uphold the flock. What an amazing.
1:12:22
Concept that these early missionaries had to wrestle
1:12:24
with. That our current prophets and
1:12:26
apostles never have to wrestle with because they know what's
1:12:31
going to happen with the church and Kingdom of Jesus Christ in
1:12:35
the latter days on the earth. That it it's not going to fall
1:12:40
away into an apostasy that will get in in greater detail when we
1:12:45
read Paul's first letter ever written, when we cover the
1:12:49
Thessalonians, first Thessalonians.
1:12:52
And so he finishes here with verse 35.
1:12:55
I have showed you all things how that solely bring you out to
1:12:58
support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus.
1:13:02
How he said it is more blessed to give than to receive.
1:13:07
Here's the only place in the Bible where Jesus is quoted as
1:13:09
saying that the Gospels don't mention that teaching.
1:13:13
So we get Paul sharing something from the Lord that that we
1:13:17
didn't get back in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
1:13:19
And then they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed
1:13:23
him. We have covered a lot of ground.
1:13:25
It might have felt like a very long lesson.
1:13:27
If you think back to the early part of this lesson, We mapped
1:13:30
out the length that Paul's journeys took thousands of miles
1:13:35
many years, and we talked about how the journey is as important
1:13:40
as the destination. So wherever you are in your
1:13:43
journey. Have hope.
1:13:45
Have faith. Keep pressing forward.
1:13:47
Know that every day as we remember Jesus as we promised at
1:13:50
sacrament, we can have His Spirit to be with us.
1:13:54
And as our journey progresses, we can look back, like we're
1:13:57
doing with the life of Paul, and see how God's hand has been in
1:14:02
our lives. And sometimes we may not see
1:14:04
that immediately, every single day.
1:14:07
But if we seek to see God's hand, if we ask to see it, we
1:14:10
will. And we know that God loves you.
1:14:14
He is with you. We invite you to share that love
1:14:17
with others as you will go about your daily journey.
1:14:20
We know that God loves you. We know that He will be with
1:14:23
you, and we encourage you to share that love with others in
1:14:27
your daily journey. And we leave this with you.
1:14:29
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
1:14:33
Know that you're loved.