The freedom that you've given us, that we would use it, Lord, vigorously to grow and to mature and to be good stewards of everything that you've given us. So we pray that you bless us, that you would guide us, that your Holy Spirit would empower us in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Okay. So, today we're looking at Acts chapter 1 through 17, and I know there's quite a few people who were not with us in the first two sections of the study of the Book of Acts. So what we're going to do is, in order for all of us to be on the same page, or at least for those of you who weren't here for the study of the first part, that you are not going to fall behind.
So this is actually the third part of three-part study in the Book of Acts. We did the first part a while ago, and we're doing chapters 18 through 28 for this section. Okay. But before we get into that, we want to make sure that we're all on the same page.
So what I want to do is I want to take some time to review, okay, review over the Book of Acts and what we've learned, and then starting from next week, we'll jump into chapter 18. Okay. So today is going to be reviewed. So if you weren't here with us for the first couple times that we did it, it'd be a good day for us to for you to catch up.
I don't have any handouts for you today, but we are going to have group opportunities for us to do this together. So Acts, this has an introduction. What is the main verse that outlines the structure of this book? Acts 1-8. Okay. So the Book of Acts is one of those books that is outlined, and it follows that outline to the T.
We can pinpoint at what point does the gospel go from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the remotest part of the world. It is divided very neatly that way. So once you understand that, Acts 1-8 is the outline of the Book of Acts. So if we say chapter 7, what part are we in?
Are we in Judea, Samaria? Are we in chapter 28, what part are we in? So you'll have a clear view of where we are in the Book of Acts. Okay. So Acts 1-8 is an extremely important verse, and I encourage you, if you have not memorized that verse, to memorize that verse because that will give you, not only is it in and of itself a powerful verse, but it gives us an outline of what we are studying.
Okay. Acts 1-8. Which apostle is called to lead among the Jewish church, and which one was called to bring the gospel to the Gentiles? Peter and Paul. So you can kind of outline where Peter steps in and where Paul steps in, right? In the Book of Acts, where the ministry is, when the primary focus of the gospel ministry is for the Jews, Peter is the primary character, right?
He's the one up in the front, he's the one giving the speeches, he's the one being persecuted and being sent to prison, okay? But once we move to the work of the Gentiles, Apostle Paul takes over, Peter is not even mentioned anymore. Okay. So those are the two main human characters, the apostle to the Gentiles and then the apostle to the Jews.
Sorry, I got that backwards. Apostle to the Jews and then apostle to the Gentiles. Okay. So, but in reality, those two people, even though they may be the main characters, they're just the people that the Holy Spirit uses to bring the gospel forward. So the real main character is who?
Those of you who were with us from the beginning, who's the main character? The Holy Spirit, right? So the Holy Spirit is the main character behind. So if you are starting with the book of Acts, what I want to encourage you to do is to circle every time you see the word Holy Spirit in the book of Acts.
Okay. I'm not going to tell you exactly how many times that word Holy Spirit is mentioned, but the Holy Spirit is mentioned all throughout the book of Acts and you can't read anything that happens in the book of Acts without the mention of how the Holy Spirit moved them, how the Holy Spirit empowered them.
So again, even though we will study Paul, we'll study Peter, the main character behind them is always the word of the Holy Spirit. That's really the theme of the whole book of Acts, how the Holy Spirit empowers people to do his work, his way. What makes the period of the Acts really unique, unlike any other period in the Church's history?
It's extremely important that we understand this or else you have bad, bad hermeneutics. This is where bad application, bad understanding of the movement of the Holy Spirit, the Church, a lot of it comes from the book of Acts. One of the fundamental principles of hermeneutics and how to understand and apply the scripture is how to interpret, how not to interpret narratives, right?
So what makes this period of when the book of Acts is written unique? What makes it unique? Okay, we still have the apostles, which we don't have today. That's unique during that period. The period of the apostles, so we're going to be doing things in group activities, so we need everybody to sit down.
You can bring your dinner, you can have your dinner, okay? But this is the format. Okay, let me reiterate for those of you who came late, we're reviewing the first 17 chapters that we studied and we're going to start from chapter 18 is going to start from next time, okay?
So this is kind of get everybody caught up so that you're not lost even though you jumped in for this one. How many of you are coming to this class for the first time? You weren't here for the last two. Okay, so there's about a third of you. All right, so anyway, that's what we're doing today, okay?
And from now on, this is going to be the format, so please don't sit on the side and if we need more tables, we'll set up more tables because I want you guys to interact with the groups, the smaller groups, okay? Okay, sit on this side. All right, and another thing is we're going to try to start at seven o'clock as close to that as possible.
So don't make, if you're in a habit of like, well, seven, we'll get in there, seven, ten, seven, fifteen, you're going to miss 15 minutes of Bible study. We're going to start at seven o'clock. I think it's only fair to do that because people who show up at seven o'clock have to wait 10-15 minutes, so I think it's only fair to start at seven o'clock.
So try to come 6.55 if you can, okay? So we're going to do our best to try to start at seven o'clock, okay? So that we can finish, when I say we're going to finish, about 8, 10, and 15, so that we will hopefully not go over that unless we absolutely have to, okay?
All right, so the Book of Acts, the reason, another reason why it's, it's period is, that's important is because it's in between two covenants, right? We have the old covenant and we have people who met Christ and yet they didn't, they weren't baptized, right? So they were under the old covenant and now the Holy Spirit has come, they heard about it, but they're kind of in transition between the covenants.
So that's a period that is unique to the Book of Acts that is not repeated in the church history, so we will, we have never experienced that ever after that, okay? So that makes it unique. So the reason why all of this is important, we're studying the Book of Acts and we're not studying it to say, you know what, Paul performed miracles, so that's what we should be doing today, you know?
I mean, they got baptized by the Holy Spirit later on after they met Christ, maybe that's what happens today too. So we have to be careful that we're not applying the things that we are learning in the Book of Acts in that direct manner because it's a narrative, right?
And it is unique to what happened to the early church, okay? So again, so we're studying, so we're studying principles that are taught and we apply principles, but we can't pull from them, just like, you know, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they went into the fire, they didn't get burned, so that means if I'm faithful, I will never get burned, right?
You would never apply it like that because you know that that's a narrative, it just tells us what happened, it is not, these are not instructions to teach us what we ought to do. So we have to be careful when we're studying the Book of Acts that you don't get major doctrines from what you study and say, "This is what happens, so therefore this is what we are supposed to do," okay?
So we don't study the Book of Narratives that way, so we have to make sure that when we're studying the Book of Acts that that is the foundation on which we build and study. Why is the study of the Book of Acts so important? It reveals God's sovereign hands in the establishment of the church and the spread of the Gospel.
Jane, can you sit with me? I'm going to have to break this habit. It shows how the Holy Spirit was a vital instrument in the empowering and spreading of the Gospel. And again, 41 times in 40 verses, the word Holy Spirit is mentioned, I guess, so I mentioned that that is his theme.
It provides background information for the letters of the Apostles. So if you're reading Thessalonians or if you're reading Corinthians, you know, it'll give you some insight as to why he wrote that letter and what are some of the details, like Philippi, right? We mentioned that last time we were there.
What is one thing that is mentioned about the Book of Philippi that is unique to that particular city because what we learned about that city? It mentioned something in the letter of Philippi. It was a Roman colony. What were they proud of? That they're Roman citizens, right? But that was their source of pride and that's why Paul emphasizes to them that our citizenship is not here but up in heaven because that's what they were bragging about.
So those kind of things are insights that you'll get as you study the background of the different cities that you may have missed just doing quite a time on your own, but again, that's why it's important. And ultimately, it is a history of our personal faith. We're not just studying a historical document.
This is very personal. This is how we came. We came about. This is how we got the gospel. You know, when Apostle Paul is afflicted and he's dragged to prison, stoned and mistruth, all of that, those things are the things that God allowed in order for us to have the gospel, right?
This is not just something that we're learning, you know, 3,000 years ago that's completely detached. Without their suffering, we wouldn't be here, right? Ultimately, God's the one who's behind it, but it's through their suffering, not just them, but for 2,000 years of people persevering and walking in faith and having the courage to preach the gospel led us to where we are today.
So, the study of the book of Acts is the beginning of that. So, we ought to study it. Again, if we are detached and again, if we don't have a personal walk with God, anything that we study in the book of Acts or anything that we study in the Bible, you're just studying history.
You're just studying theology. So, if you happen to be one of those people who like history, you might be interested, but if that's not the case and you're not walking with God, studying the Bible is very laborious. You're studying documents. I mean, you think, "I did that back in college.
Why do I need to do this again?" Right? So, it's extremely important for us to understand that this is a study of our personal history. All right. Just ignore that we're having a lot of problems. We're in the middle of fixing it. We had a problem starting next week.
Please sit on the tables out on the sides. Because we're having, we're going to start, from now on, we're going to be having group stuff. So, I set up about six or seven per table. Okay? So, I'm trying not to have more than seven per table. If we need more, we'll set up more tables.
All right. So, the author of the book, the gospel of Luke, ends with the ascension of Jesus, and then Acts begins with the ascension of Jesus. Okay. So, these two books are connected. It really should have been one book, right? But the reason why they didn't connect Luke and Acts together is because John, you know, they had a choice of either putting John in the front of the gospels or at the end of the gospels, but I think they thought it was inappropriate to put John at the end because the three synoptic gospels, you know, belong together and Matthew would have been the most logical choice of putting that up front because Matthew's gospel is the gospel that connects Jesus to the fulfillment of the Messiah, the prophecy of the Messiah, right?
So, Matthew would have continued basically the fulfillment of what God said through the prophets in the Old Testament. So, they chose to put Matthew in the front. Therefore, in order to put, you know, in order to put that in the front, they had to put John in the back, right?
But in reality, if you study the book of Luke, it really should have been together, Luke and Acts, because this was a written account of Jesus, the book of Luke, and Acts is a written account of what happened after Luke by the same guy for the same person, theophilus.
All right. So, this is a broad outline. Again, if you weren't with us in the study of the book of Acts for the first two parts, this is kind of give you an idea. The book of Acts is very neatly divided, right? Acts 1-8 tells us, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the remotest part of the world." (itting) (dinging) (dinging) (dinging) (dinging) (dinging) (dinging) (dinging) (dinging) (dinging) - Alright, so, first, the major division of the book happens at chapter 12.
So chapter one through 12 is mainly the work with who? (pause) Peter with the Jews, right? So the gospel, not that the Gentiles are not here in the gospel, but the main part of the works is for the Jews, right? In the New Testament. And then starting from chapter 13, what happens in chapter 13?
That takes us to the end of the book. Switches to Paul, and his three missionary journeys begin, right, his first missionary journey begins. If you can sit on the table, yeah. Right here, there's two men. So starting from 13 to 28 is the gospel going out to the Gentiles.
So if you think of it in a broad perspective, chapter one through 12 is to the Jews, in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. And then chapter 13, there is a deliberate mission work that is started in chapter 13, and it takes us to chapter 28. Now, all of it is not mission work.
The end part of it is Paul being captured in Rome, and then he spends a big chunk of it in prison. That's the first missionary in prison. But 13 through 28 mainly is work being done outside of the Jewish community. So chapter one through 12 is to the Jews, 13 through 28 to the Gentiles.
That's the broad break. So within the first 12 chapters, chapter seven can go either way because it's transition, but chapter one through seven is primarily work in Jerusalem. Primarily, it's not exclusive, primarily in Jerusalem. Then chapter eight through 12, what happens in chapter seven and eight that propels them to go to the Israel?
Persecution, right? So persecution breaks out, people begin to spread out, and the first place they go to is Samaria, right? And the gospel begins to go out as a result of that. So chapter eight through 12 is the gospel beginning to go outside of Jerusalem, and then when we get to chapter 13, it's a deliberate planned act to go to the Gentiles, right?
So that's the broad outline. So Apostle Peter is the main character, first 12 chapters, and Apostle Paul on. Jewish evangelism, the first seven chapters, and then transition to Judea and Samaria, right? So Jews who are outside of Jerusalem, and then Gentile evangelism. You don't need to worry too much about the dates.
All done in the power of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1.8. So that's the general outline. So this kind of gives you a picture of what's happening. It begins in Jerusalem, and the persecution begins, and it begins to spread to Samaria, right? And then we'll see, starting from chapter eight, nine, and 10, the gospel just kind of spreading out.
This way. And then, chapter 13 and on, is Antioch is here, and you'll see the gospel begin to spread this way, this area. That's the first missionary journey. Second missionary journey comes all the way up this way. And then third missionary journey will go even further out like that, okay?
So that's kind of like the outline of how the gospel is being spread. And this is just a kind of a recap. Remember when the Holy Spirit comes at the Pentecost, the people who were there to listen, and they were all amazed because they were able to hear them speaking in tongues in their own language?
And these are all the different peoples that are mentioned, and I put 'em in different color because each color represents a different region. So, again, this was not planned. This was not, they say, let's have everybody from all over the world come and be there for the Pentecost. This was all God's doing, right?
And so when the Pentecost happens and the church is inaugurated, the first Christians are people from all over. So each group of people from Mesopotamia, from Cappadocia and Pontus in Asia, Libya and Cyrene from down here. And so it's basically north, south, east, and west. And when the persecution happens, these people begin to spread out.
They're all in different places. So by the time the persecution happens and the gospel goes out from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, God already has them prepared because these people are running and they're preaching the gospel to their hometowns, right? So that's what happens at the Pentecost. So this just gives you a broad outline of what we've been studying and what we're going to.
And then today, what I want you guys to do, and this is the reason why I'm having you sit in your groups, is we have 38 different events that they're not in chronological order, at least not in this one. What I want you to do is go back and on your paper, outline this way, Book of Acts, Acts 1-8, Chapter 1-7, 8-12, 13-20.
Well, it'd be 13-17 because that's where we stopped, okay? So I want you to outline those three things and then go back here in your groups that you have. After you divide it into three parts, put down which of them belong to which part, okay? You understand what I'm saying?
So, and I want you guys to do this as a group project, do it together, and try to figure out, did this happen in Jerusalem? Did this happen today at Samaria? Did this happen in Paul's first or second missionary journey? Put it on that paper first, and then I'll have a second part to that after you finish.
Okay? So I gave you two pens, so you don't have to fly it over. We're just gonna write it down since that's usually a problem, okay? Just take these 38 events and break it down into different happenings. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) And please don't just write number one, number two, number four.
Just write it out. (audience chattering) If you wanna put it in order, I'm gonna have you put it in order eventually. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) I am telling it up to you, three sections, chapter one through seven, eight through 12, 13 through 17.
You can title it Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the Gold Spar, or Jews, Gentiles. Oh, oh, oh, you cannot use your Bible. You cannot use your Bible, okay? That's a big part, I forgot to tell you. That's the whole point of this exercise, is for you to, okay? (audience chattering) No Bible, no Bible, okay?
It would defeat the point if you used the Bible. There's not a test to see if you can read it. (audience chattering) No, no, no, I'm gonna write them all down. (audience chattering) Huh? (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) Don't cheat on him.
(audience chattering) (audience chattering) Yes. It's up to you. I don't want you to worry too much about that. For now, make sure you put it on the right spot. One through seven, eight through 12, 13. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) At this point, don't worry too much about the exact chronological order.
Just put it in the right section. Does this happen in Jerusalem? Does this happen in Judea and Samaria? Is this an event that happens during his journey? 'Cause if you try to get it chronologically, you're gonna take too long. (audience chattering) I wanted to see how much you get.
(audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) I want you guys to write it out. Write out what's there. It doesn't have to be word for word, but so that when you see it, you know it's there.
Like you know what you're talking about. You don't have to do it word for word. I just, you can understand. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) Okay, you get, I want you to put numbers. I want you to write out. You don't have to do it word for word. So that when you look at this, you can see.
You don't say, well, what's 11, what's 16, what's 18? So that when you look at it, you can see what it is. It doesn't have to be word for word. I just want you guys to understand. (audience chattering) You have to write it out. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) You guys start writing it down.
You don't have to get the order exactly. Just one through seven, if you think it happened in Jerusalem, put it in that section. We're gonna work on the chronology together. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) Which room is done?
(audience chattering) You don't have to write it word for word, but you should be able to recognize what that is. (audience chattering) It's not a test, it's for you to exercise your mind to figure out where this belongs. If you have the general area of where you think this happened, it'll be easier to memorize later.
(audience chattering) It's a profession. Everybody's a professionist. It's all a business. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) All right. Raise your hand if your group is done. Is your group done? You guys done?
You guys done? Who's not done? We need two more minutes. One minute for the friends. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) You guys aren't hot, are you? (audience chattering) Are you guys hot? Stuffy? (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) All right, let me have your attention. Okay, let's walk through this real quick.
And again, for those of you who came a little bit late, we're doing review for this week because there's, I forget how many, but I think I counted about a third of the people who are in our group now are joining us for the first time, and we're gonna make sure that we're on the same page before we go on.
Our hope was last time that we would finish our second missionary journey, and then we'll be able to pick up our third one, but we left half a chapter to go. So chapter 18, the first section of it is the end of the second journey, okay? But we'll jump into that next week, and it'll be a good review for you.
Again, like I said, Book of Acts is a continual connection from one event to the other. So if you are not connecting these events, you jump in in the middle of chapter seven, then you're not gonna understand what led to that. Because this is history. Just like if you're learning history, you can't jump in in AD 55 about that event and try to understand that without knowing what happened in AD 54 that led to that, right?
So all of these things are connected events. One event happens that leads to another, and then that event happens, and that leads to another. And in the connection of all of these things, you see the Holy Spirit directing them. The people are not in control here, right? The persecution, the spreading of the gospel, going into Judea and Samaria, having these people from all over the world come to Jerusalem, and the Pentecost happening, and then them spreading all of this stuff but not stuff that people were able to control, right?
You see God maneuvering all of this, and then one event, God allows it to happen, leads to another event, leads to another event. So it's important for us to connect chapter 18 to what's been going on in the first 17 chapters, okay? And again, that'll help us not only connect what we're learning, but it'll help us to connect what happens even after, right, in the early church history.
Like, why did the early church have their church organized this way? Why are these regions this way? Why are the local churches that way? You know, help us to understand, even today, like a lot of the stuff that we are learning, a lot of stuff that we practice comes from what we see in the early church, okay?
So let's quickly go over this. Oh, and another thing is, 'cause I'm not gonna mention this again, we're going to do our best to start at seven o'clock, okay? So again, seven, as close to seven as possible. We're going to be having Bible study in this format. We're gonna have more group discussion, group interaction.
So if we run out of chairs, run out of tables, we'll set up more tables. We'll set up, you know, we'll take the tables aside. And so I want you guys to have, today, because it's the first time and you're not familiar with it, you know, everybody's just gonna sit wherever.
And it's okay, you can choose to sit wherever, but we don't want one table to have 10 and the other table to have three. So that's why we set up seven chairs per table. So starting from next week, if you can, if those seven, you know, chairs are filled up, to both sit in another table.
So we don't want one group to have four and another group to have eight or 10. Okay, starting from next week. And please sign up for that. So starting from next week, we'll have a schedule for snacks. So we're gonna use those funds to have snacks on the Bible study sessions, okay?
And if you guys wanna help sign up for that, you can sign up up there, then I'll send you an email for what to do, okay? All right, so let's begin. So what is the first thing that took place? Actually, you know what, let's not do that. Let's just look at the events that took place in the first seven chapters.
So just tell me what are in there. Okay, I'll do this. Each table, give me one. Starting from this table. Okay. Okay, 26, Jesus' ascension. All right, this table right here. (audience laughing) Okay, promise of the Holy Spirit. Okay, these don't necessarily have to be chronological. We'll do that, work on that next.
Can you tell us a number? Can you tell us a number? What? Number four. Next. (audience mumbling) Can you give us a number so that they can all? Number three, okay. Number 19. (audience mumbling) Okay, conversion of 3,000. Number seven, Peter's personal. Okay, next. Can you tell us again the right number?
(audience laughing) If you're wrong, I'll tell you. Okay. (audience laughing) Next. (audience mumbling) Okay, what number? (audience mumbling) (audience laughing) If it's wrong, I'll tell you. Okay. (audience mumbling) Judgment of Ananias' fire. Okay, next table. Yeah, give us a number and tell us what it is. Okay, next table.
- Oh, number eight. (audience mumbling) - Okay, main man's heel for eight. (audience laughing) Okay, the Holy Spirit comes. Okay, next. (audience mumbling) Have somebody designate it so that we can just go boom, boom, boom. (audience mumbling) Number one through seven. (audience laughing) Now this is chapter eight. You're close, you're close.
That's B plus. (audience laughing) Okay, next. What is that? What does that happen? What does-- (audience mumbling) When does James get martyred? (audience mumbling) Remember? 12. Okay, next table. Next table. All right, good. Okay, next. Next. (audience mumbling) Huh? That's all? What happened? Number one? Is there anything else?
Yeah, I think somebody said that or not. Okay. 31, which is? (audience mumbling) Right, that's chapter seven. Or six. Right? What number is that, 31? (audience mumbling) The deacons are chapter six. Okay. The promise of the Holy Spirit. Oh, number one here? Oh, did somebody say that? No, nobody said that?
Okay. Yeah, that would definitely be it. Oh, oh, oh, oh, father of the Gentiles, no? (audience mumbling) 14? What do you think? (audience laughing) That's right. (audience mumbling) That happens in chapter five. (audience mumbling) All right, I think we pretty much covered everybody, right? (audience mumbling) Right, that would be chapter seven.
What is group one? (audience mumbling) That would be the next section. After the persecution. So, remember this, okay? Chapter seven is a transition to Judea and Samaria. And what causes this transition? Right, persecution, but death. Right? Stephen dies in chapter seven. The next transition happens in chapter 12. Who dies?
James dies, okay? So, if you notice that the propelling of the gospel to the next stage happens as an intense persecution happens. So, chapter seven, Stephen gets martyred. Chapter 12, James gets martyred, right? Peter's put into prison, and then Herod dies as a result of not giving glory to God.
And then that takes us to the Gentile world, okay? So, just kind of have that in mind. Chapter seven, Stephen dies. Chapter 12, James dies. Okay, and that's where the transition happens. So, all these events that we talked about that's on the first stage, that happens primarily in Jerusalem.
All that stuff is taking place as a foundation laying before it gets to the next stage where what happens in chapter eight? Stephen dies, so what happens in chapter eight? As a result of his death? They flee because Saul is going after the Christians, right? So, as a result of the fleeing, what happens?
The gospel goes to Judea and Samaria, right? So, the first place that we see the gospel going to is, where did they go? Remember how Judea and Samaria looks like? See, this is Jerusalem, this is Judea. Judea is kind of like the province that Jerusalem is in. Samaria is the next province.
So, once they come out of Jerusalem, they're in Judea. So, the next area they go to is where? Samaria. So, as they take off, chapter eight, they take off, and where do they end up going? What's the first event that we see in chapter eight? Philip is at Samaria, right?
So, that's where we begin, chapter eight. Philip's at Samaria. So, again, hopefully this won't take too long. Actually, it is gonna take too long. We're already at eight o'clock. All right, let's go over this real quick. (audience chattering) All right, can you see it? Check your answers with what's on the board.
And it is chronologically in order. (audience laughing) The red's too hard to see. All right, so. Huh? Yeah, now it says chronological order. (audience laughing) That's why I wanted you to write it out. Okay, anyway, we won't have time anyway. Okay, so I want you guys to check your answers with this.
But the reason why I put it in these three different colors, I did it on purpose, okay? The reason why I put the first section in white is because white is the beginning. It is when the Holy Spirit comes, right? And it's the foundation link. The second part, in seven, eight through 12, is characterized by heavy persecution, okay?
Where they're being put into prison, coming out. They're being beaten, and James is martyred as a result. So this, I put it in red, because as the gospel begins to spread, the opposition begins to come down on them, which is the reason why I put it in red. And then the next section, and on, I put it in green to represent growth.
Because once the gospel goes out from Judea and Samaria, it starts to go to the Gentile world, it doesn't stay in one place. It just, boom, it just explodes, right? So all this time, the work has been centralized in Jerusalem. In fact, the majority of Israel's history is about what happens in Jerusalem and Judea, right?
So we're not just talking about the period during Jesus' life. We're talking about redemptive history is mainly, not only, but mainly focused in Jerusalem and Judea, right? And now the Holy Spirit has come, what God has already always intended, that it was going to start there, it was going to spread.
So once it gets out of Jerusalem, it doesn't creep out. It explodes out, right? And so what we're learning only happens in how many years? What do we say? Approximately, we don't know the exact numbers. From the book of Acts, it's somewhere around 33 AD. Right? But 30, 40 years of history.
So what we're looking at is what happens in about 30, 40 years of history. And it's just exploding. So imagine, it didn't just stop at the book of Acts, at Acts chapter 28, right? That kind of movement happened for the first 300 years. It was just exploding, right? Not that after 300 years that the gospel stopped, but there was a lot of other problems.
And once the church became centralized and it got organized, they started to try to deal with the problems, the doctrinal issues started to get united, and then with that came the politics, and all of a sudden they had to manage the church and all this stuff. But prior to that, it was almost chaotic, just like what you see in the book of Acts.
These 30, 40 years was exactly how the church was for the first 300 years. And that's how the Christianity spread all over to India, to Egypt, to England, and all over the world. So again, so this green thing, I put it in green because this continues on, it's just gonna continue to explode, right?
I'm just gonna review for the next 15 minutes. So, you wanna check? Are you able to check? Can you see? You know what, I'll give you five minutes. Take a look at that, 'cause I don't want you guys to do wrong, look at your paper, look at that, right?
And see if there's anything that you need to correct. I'll give you five minutes. And then for the rest of the 10 minutes, I'm gonna give a quick overview of what's happening in the first 17 chapters. Like I said, you don't need to worry about the exact chronology, just make sure that it's in the right section.
(audience chattering) Yeah, if they have 38, you have 130. (audience chattering) Okay, I'll give you time to take a look at that. As we're reviewing the chapters, you'll see, if you got it wrong, you can change it while we're reviewing it, okay? All right, so, real quick, chapter one, we said was the foundation name.
And remember, we talked about that, those of you guys who were with us from the beginning. Chapter one basically is a confirmation of Jesus' identity. He resurrects, he reveals himself to many people, right? And then he confirms his message. He was preaching about the kingdom of God. And then third, he confirms his method.
He said the Holy Spirit's gonna come upon you and you will be my witness. So it was the Holy Spirit coming, right? And that's the theme throughout the whole book of Acts and church history. Today, if there's one lesson that we're gonna learn from the book of Acts is you're effective when you are filled with the Holy Spirit and you are ineffective when you're not filled with the Holy Spirit.
It is not about methods, it is not about organization, it is not about how much they knew and how articulate they were. It is how much they were filled with the Holy Spirit, right? If they're filled with the Holy Spirit, they're effective. So he says that's his method. And then at the end, he confirms his disciples, right?
When Matthias takes Judas' place and Peter begins to speak and lead again. Because prior to that, he fails utterly. Jesus confirms him back in John 21, "Do you love me?" And he's restored his personal relationship with Jesus, but then we begin to see him leading again among the disciples, right?
So that's a foundation laid in chapter one. Chapter two, the main thing that happens is the Pentecost. And with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the inauguration of a new covenant. The old covenant has gone, the new covenant coming. New wine skin for the new wine. The Holy Spirit is able to indwell the Christians.
Why? Because we've been washed with the blood of Christ. We have become new because Christ has forgiven our sins. Our sins have been atoned for. So now we have become the temple of God, right? So now the Old Testament saints could never experience that. What we have is the Holy Spirit comes, new wine into new wine skin, and a new community is established, right?
So the church begins. That's the first beginning of his new community. So again, this is an example of what happens. The Holy Spirit falls. All these people from all over the place, they're the first ones, right? They hear the gospel, they get cut to the heart, and these are among the people, the 3,000 first church members of Jerusalem that become Christians.
And then as a result of that event, Peter stands up and he preaches the gospel. That's his first preaching. 3,000 people come to Christ, and they're baptized. The early church, again, the church begins, and the church has four things that they were committed to. They were committed to apostles, teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.
And those are the things that the early church were committed to, right? And these are the things that, again, today as a church, when we say, "What is the essence of the church?" We say, "Here it is," 'cause that's what we see. Chapter three begins with the healing of the beggar at the temple, and it is made very public, and that results in Peter preaching his second sermon, and it says, "5,000 people come to Christ." So the church is exploding in Jerusalem, right?
And then chapter five, we see the first problem that comes, and with Ananias and Sapphira pretending to have given all when they didn't, and they end up being judged as a result. But the interesting thing is this scene we see in Acts 5, 13, 14. After the conclusion of this, says, "None of the rest dared to join them, "but the people held them in high esteem, "and more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, "multitudes of both men and women," right?
Those of you who were with us, we see this almost at the end of every event that takes place, as if Luke is trying to emphasize, whether it was persecution, whether it was division in the church, whether it was dealing with sin, all of that led to the growth of the church, right?
'Cause it wasn't the mess then, it wasn't because the church was a nice place where everybody got together, it wasn't a place where they felt safe, right? In fact, they got persecuted because they came to church, they got uncomfortable because they came to church. It's almost as if nothing's going to stop the Holy Spirit's movement, right?
And Luke is trying to go out of his way to emphasize that. The apostle's jailed, and then he's free. And then chapter six, we find another problem where the community is divided, and one group is upset because their widows are not being fed, right? So persecution happens, and again, because of that, they establish seven deacons.
And again, this section ends with, and the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to faith, okay? So we continue to see this theme over and over. Stephen gets martyred, right? He's one of the seven deacons.
He stands up, he preaches, and as a result, persecution happens, right? And that takes us to the second section, where this is the reason why the gospel goes to Judea and Samaria is because they're fleeing for their life. And it is at this section where we find Philip preaching the gospel to the Samaritans.
And Peter and John come to baptize the Samaritans with the Holy Spirit, which is interesting because John was one of the, John and James were one of the two brothers who wanted to bring fire and judgment upon the Samaritans, because they didn't believe what Jesus came through. It's ironic now that he's one of the men who comes to baptize them with the Holy Spirit.
And again, in chapter eight, the Ethiopian eunuch converts. So again, so you see the same narrative, the gospel spreading, right? It's in Samaria. An Ethiopian eunuch from a far off land, he comes to Jerusalem to worship God, and he becomes a Christian, right? So we don't know much about the Ethiopian eunuch.
All we know is that he becomes a Christian. Possibly he goes back to preach the gospel to Ethiopian. In chapter nine, Apostle Paul, in order to go and drag the Christians back all the way from Damascus, remember we saw the distance? It was not just, he wasn't just going to a neighbor's house.
He was committed, and if he wasn't going to drag all these Christians back, he needed to have a small army to go with him, right? And on this journey, he meets Christ. And again, it talks about how, as a result, the church continues to grow. So just to kind of give you a brief map, in Acts nine and Acts 10 is where the gospel begins to go to Lyra, remember?
From Jerusalem to Lyra, and Aenas is the guy who gets healed here. Remember in Joppa, Tabitha, what's her other name? Dorcas, which means gazelle, right? And she dies, and then he brings her back to life, and then that begins to spread, and then the next thing that happens is, happens in Caesarea.
What happens in Caesarea? An important man comes to Christ here in Caesarea. Centurion, okay? It's not Star Wars. Centurion comes to Christ, and what's the significance of him coming to Christ? What happens at his house? Peter has a dream, right? That do not call unclean what God has, I declare clean.
He has that dream three separate times, and then Jesus connects Peter with Cornelius, right? Peter goes to Cornelius' house, and he has his family waiting, he preaches the gospel. As he's preaching the gospel, what happens? Holy Spirit comes upon the Gentiles. So, chapter two is the Pentecost for the Jews, right?
Chapter 10 is the Pentecost for the Gentiles, where the Holy Spirit comes to the Gentiles. And then so, when we get from here, it takes us to chapter 11. What happens at chapter 11? First Gentile church is established, which is the church of Antioch, okay? So, you kind of follow.
Everything happens up to chapter, so basically, chapter five is Ananias and Sapphira. Chapter six is the church being divided because of not feeding the widows. Chapter seven is Stephen. Chapter eight is persecution. And then chapter nine takes us out, okay? Chapter nine and 10. So, the Gentile church in Antioch is first established in chapter 11.
And that happens to be the first place where we are called the, we're first called Christians in that area, okay? Which was meant in a derogatory way. So, chapter 12, there are three major, three events take place. It begins with the martyr of James. Peter is imprisoned, right? And then he comes out miraculously.
And then Herod is killed because we're not giving glory to God. Remember, that's a transition into the Gentile world because Herod is the king, right? Herod is the king of Israel, even though he's a puppet king. So, it's almost symbolic that he dies and then now the gospel goes to the Gentile world, okay?
So, chapter seven, Stephen dies, takes us to Judea and Samaria. Chapter 12, James and Herod dies, and that takes us to the Gentile world, okay? Chapter 13 and on is the beginning of the three journeys. So, we looked at chapter 13 and 14 where Paul and Barnabas are sent out from Antioch.
They come to Salamis and pass those, who becomes a Christian here? The governor. Anybody know? Right. Say it again. Sergius, huh? - Sergius Paulus. - Sergius Paulus. He was the governor here or Jesus tries to deter that and he becomes blind for a period and that results in the conversion of the governor here.
They come over here to Perga and then what happens at Perga? Okay, John Mark takes off. He wants to go back home, right? He comes, they come to Pisidian, Antioch, and he bears tremendous fruit here in Antioch. In fact, he goes to the synagogue, preaches the gospel, and they're so interested, they beg him to stay and continue to preach.
Right, so he comes back the next week and the whole town comes out to hear him and he is so effective that many people come to Christ but as a result, persecution comes. And because of that, he ends up coming to Iconium, right? And he again goes to Iconium, goes to the synagogues and preaches the gospel and these guys are chasing him over here, right?
The persecution is following him and then he goes to Lystra. Something important is happening in Lystra. It is the first place where? No synagogue, right? This is where Timothy grew up. There's no synagogue there. In order to have a synagogue, how many Jewish men needs to be there? 10, so they didn't even have 10 Jewish men and that's probably the reason why Timothy was not circumcised, even though his mom raised him as a Jew, right?
So that's what happens in Lystra. They come to, he gets stoned because of these guys coming and getting him, think he's dead, he comes back in, gathers himself, comes back to Derby and then when he's ready, he goes back to strengthen these churches, right? And so he makes his trip back over here and that's the missionary journey.
It takes about two to three years. He comes back to Jerusalem and in chapter 15, it's not mentioned here, in between the first and second missionary journey, what happens in chapter 15? Something very important happens in chapter 15. Jerusalem Council and what is the first decision that's made, first part?
(audience mumbling) Right, the Judaizers, the circumcision group comes and says the Jews need to be, the Gentiles need to be circumcised in order for them to become a Christian. So they have a council in Jerusalem and they decide and they write a letter and take it back to the Church of Antioch and the reason why they go to the second missionary journey is to come check up on the church and second, to take the letter to these Gentile churches to tell them you do not need to be circumcised, to make the gospel clear, right?
So that's what causes them to come but what happens in chapter, before they leave is Paul and Barnabas have a discussion about Mark, right? And they come to an agreement. Paul wants to take Mark and, I'm not Paul, but Barnabas wants to take Mark and Paul says no, so Barnabas takes Mark and he goes back to Cyprus, which was his hometown, right?
And that's why they don't go back this way. So Paul picks up food. Who does he pick up as a partner to replace Barnabas? - Luke. - Silas. Luke joins, that's a good point. Luke joins this mission because it is in his second journey he begins to use the pronoun we.
We did this and we did that. That happens in second missionary journey, okay? But Silas is the official one. He's probably peers with Apostle Paul. He's not a Timothy figure, right? Where he's a disciple of Apostle Paul, he's a co-worker of Apostle Paul and so that's why you see his name on some of the letters.
So he comes back, visits Derbe, Iconia. He wants to come back and visit some of these churches. Well, what happens here where he can't go into Asia? Holy Spirit prevents him from going. He wants to come up to Bithynia. Spirit of Jesus directly says no and then he comes over here to Myesia.
What happens in Myesia? He has a vision, right? Of a man saying come over to Macedonia. So he comes over to Macedonia. What happens in Macedonia? He goes to Philippi, right? Does he go to a synagogue? There's no synagogue. So he goes and looks for a place where they're gathered together to worship, these God-fears and who does he run into?
Lydia, right? Lydia is an important figure in Philippi and she was a very prominent woman who sold purple clothing, right? And so it's emphasized. And so Lydia is a key figure in Philippi, right? So in Philippi, persecution happens as they run to Thessalonica. He preaches there for three weeks, right?
But again, persecution is heavy so he leaves and then where does he go? Berea, right? So he's in Berea and again, these guys are determined to get him. They follow him all the way to Berea. So he ends up coming to Athens, right? And it's in Athens where his spirit is provoked and then he goes to the marketplace for the first time where prior to that, he's always going to the synagogues.
He's deliberately targeting the Jewish people 'cause they were the first people that would be willing to hear and make sense. But he's deliberately going to the marketplace and he addresses the Gentile community. He does that first in Mystra, right? But it is in Athens where he's actually at the marketplace itself and he preaches the gospel there.
So I didn't go into the detail of what he said but that's sort of where we left off. All right, so we're gonna finish the Bible study here but I just want you to know again, I was, this is just for me personally, coming back from India and spending time with these pastors who are being beaten and forsaking everything.
One of the guys who organized one of the camps, he's a lawyer and his full-time job is is a lawyer and that's how he makes his money. So he doesn't get supported from outside. He actually spends his money to support the pastor. He has a network of about 70 different churches that he works with and he recently was government sanctioned to represent government, which is a big deal in that area.
But we talked to him and for him to be doing what he's doing, I mean, he's literally risking everything that he has. And he says the only reason why he's doing that is to use it as a platform to preach the gospel. And he himself and every single pastor there who was working in the midst of Muslims and Hindus are literally risking their health and life and just like that young guy that I talked about on Sunday.
And their thing is they don't have access to the study of the word of God. You know, we spent three days teaching them how to understand the Bible, just like things that say don't take narratives and make applications that when you read this passage, make sure you read the passage before that and after that.
You can't just pull passage out of it and then explain and then say that this is what the Bible says. The basic principles that I think if you've been a Christian for a while, you've probably heard it many times. Right, don't do eisegesis, do exegesis. But these guys have been preaching the gospel, some of them for 10, 12 years, but they've never been explosive.
So they were so hungry and we were encouraged because everything that we said was going to directly translate into equipping the other Christians that they represent to be more bold and stand up for the truth. And it was so encouraging for us to know that every minute that we spent was spent in equipping a church that's being persecuted.
And again, it just kind of gave me an appreciation for what we have here. I mean, this is so, we are so abundant in everything that you can imagine. I ate beef jerky for four weeks, not four weeks, for two weeks, four bags in two weeks. Obviously food was not the biggest issue, but we have abundance of food, we have air conditioning, we have Bible studies.
Our problem is which one should we go to? We have, which pastor do I like? And we're always going, I like John Piper, I like this guy, 'cause we're just so abundant. And it just kind of gave me more appreciation of what we have. And when we're self-focused and we don't see what's going on in the world, we can easily get bored with all of this stuff.
'Cause I've heard it. And I have to be here because I'm a Christian, I'm a member of the Marines, so I have to put my time in here. Not realizing how precious this is around the world, and how precious it has been all throughout church history when it is applied knowing, you know, there are brothers and sisters who are literally being beaten and were wounded to be beaten to have the information that we have here.
And so it just, again, everything that we're studying just made it that much more serious. Studying the Word of God, understanding it, and then having a platform that we can use all the blessings that God has given us in our church, not to use it so that you can have more and that you can feel better and you can have more theology, but the stronger our church becomes, the more we can get involved with things like that.
In India and China, you know, in other parts of the world that maybe some of you, if you are properly equipped, I think many of you can go there and do exactly what I did. You don't have to have a degree because you guys know what they need. You know, anything, everything that I taught, I think I could probably pick, you know, more than two, three dozen people in our church to be able to do that.
So I feel like if our church is strengthened and you're equipped, if what we're trying to do is to set up a Bible institute where, again, we just tapped into two guys who have a network. One guy has a network of 40, 50 churches, another guy has a network of 70 churches, but within that network, we met two other pastors who have 27 and 30 of their own.
And so each one of them were telling us, can you please do this for us? But what we're trying to do through the network of the Southern Baptist churches in our area is to establish a Bible institute. And a lot of the churches that are going or are planning to get involved are gonna involve their lay people to help out in this.
So people who are able to teach, we're gonna take them with us so that we can have a smaller impact. So we taught in one camp in front of 150 people. It's not as effective because we can't answer questions. So if we broke that up into four, five different pieces, and if we had enough people to go, just to answer simple questions, right?
Even just what we went through, just to go through with them, it would be a tremendous help. And then those people who can't teach theology, they desperately need to learn English. Because if they don't learn English, they can't get good jobs. And they're trying to be bi-vocational. So there's so many opportunities to serve around the world.
And I really want our church to be equipped, to be strengthened and grow, not so that the community church can be big and we can have a great place to worship God, but that this could be used as a platform to reach out to places like India. And I'm sure India is not the only place, but many other countries around the world, many other places around the world who desperately need us.
So I really want us to study, even if it's just a study of chapter 18, it may seem insignificant, but it is not. These things that we are learning equips and strengthens people to be able to preach the gospel more effectively. So again, I just wanted to share, really deep in my heart, I mean, there's a lot of other things that I wanna share, but as we study the book of Acts, but not to study it as information, right?
Today is the power of salvation to everyone who believe this is the gospel that has come down to us, right? With so many cloud of witnesses and I hope and pray that we would embrace it at the same time that we do. Let's pray. And again, I just wanna remind you, next time you come, please come sit in this.
And today we'll have this activity, but next week we're gonna have more discussions and prayer time in our small group. So please sit in this one. And please come on time. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we wanna praise and thank you for your goodness. We thank you, Lord God, that you've blessed us tremendously with everything that we have.
Lord, we admit that at a time we are spoiled. With overabundance, we're spoiled, Lord God, from hearing good sermons on the radio and in the internet. We have so much, so many churches, so many options that we have. And sometimes we forget the big picture of what you are doing with our brothers and sisters around the world.
I pray, Father, that you would raise up a church that would be broken for our brothers, Lord God, who are sacrificing so much that more people may come to Christ. We pray, Father, that you would connect us to these things, physically, financially, emotionally, socially, Lord God, that our church would not be a kingdom of our own, but that we would play a small part, Lord God, in what you desire to do, and what you've always been doing in the Great Commission, making disciples of all the nations.
So we ask, Lord, that even in our study of the Book of Acts, that you would give us a bigger perspective and understanding of the importance and urgency, Lord God, of why we need a strong church, a equipped church, a church filled with people who are equipped with your word and ready, Lord God, to say, "Here we are, send us forth." So for that end, we pray that you will bless us that our studies, Lord, would lead to greater fruit.
Jesus, say we pray. If you have not signed your attendance sheet, please sign it, and again, the money that we're collecting,