Kind: Notes

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Notes for my weekly Bible Study group.
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Overview

  • Paul is before the council giving testimony.  The high priest tells his people to smack Paul in the mouth for what he was saying. Paul calls him a hypocrite but later apologizes since Christians aren’t supposed to speak badly about their leaders.
  • The Pharisees and the Sadducees in the council argue with each other since some of them agreed with Paul and others didn’t. Paul admits he was a Pharisee and the Pharisees believed in resurrection of the dead but the Sadducees did not.
  • The Pharisees and the Sadducees in the council argue with each other since some of them agreed with Paul and others didn’t.
  • The Roman commander removed Paul to the barracks to keep him from being torn apart by the crowd.
  • Later that evening God tells Paul that his next assignment would be to testify about God in Rome. Paul wasn’t sure how he would get there since he was in jail. Despite this, Paul was fully invested in the Holy Spirit and trusted in God’s plans. Paul had no doubt that he would somehow get to Rome to finish his teachings.  If God promises something He will always be faithful to His promise. Always trust in God.
  • The next day the Roman commander sets up a small army to escort Paul all the way to his next destination safely. This fulfilled God’s promise to travel to his next city.
  • There are four principles to learn from Acts:
    • PRINCIPLE #1: We must be fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit. (Acts 19:21; 20:22–24; 21:10–14; 22:30—23:1)
    • PRINCIPLE #2: Once we’ve fully surrendered, we must learn how to handle friendly fire. (Acts 23:2–5; John 15:26—16:4)
      • Paul responded to Ananias’s attack on him with logic and information because he didn’t realize Ananias was the high priest. When he did, Paul responded humbly, acknowledging his response was not in accordance with God’s Law.
    • PRINCIPLE #3: You must know your divine purpose amongst great opposition. (Acts 23:6–10; John 18:37)
    • PRINCIPLE #4: We must fully trust in God’s promise and provision. (Acts 23:16, 23; Joshua 21:45; 1 Samuel 3:19)

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Notes for my weekly Bible Study group.
Resources

Overview

  • At the end of Acts 21, Paul was back in Jerusalem. The Jews seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple complex, planning to beat him to death.
  • A Roman commander arrested Paul. Paul asked that he be allowed to address the crowd that had attacked him. Acts 22 records the text of Paul’s speech and the crowd’s’ reaction.
  • Instead of preaching the gospel, Paul expains why he traveled with a Gentile from Ephesus. Paul reminds them of his strict education by the Pharisee rabbi Gamaliel and how violently he had, at first, persecuted Christians. Paul then explains his conversion and talks about his return to Jerusalem and how the Jews sought to kill him, so God told him to leave Jerusalem and concentrate on reaching the Gentiles. The mention of Gentiles angered the crowd listening to him.
  • In the last part of the chapter, the Roman tribune realizes neither Paul’s speech nor the crowd’s anger will resolve anything. So the Roman commander decides to torture Paul until he speaks the full truth.
  • The soldiers tie Paul up but before the centurion can start whipping him Paul points out that he is a Roman citizen and cannot be flogged until he has faced a trial. The centurion rushes to the tribune who, in turn, rushes to Paul to validate the information. The Romans are horrified since it would have been a crime to flog Paul (it was also a crime that they shackled him in the temple courtyard).
  • Chapter 22 concludes with the tribune’s search for the truth as he schedules a meeting with the Sanhedrin (Jewish court), hoping they can shed light on the situation.

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Notes for my weekly Bible Study group.
Resources

Overview

  • Jews were plotting to kill Paul. Many people hated Paul because of what had happened before the Jewish Council.
  • Paul sent for the disciples in Ephesus and said goodbye before heading north to Macedonia. Paul went through the places he visited on his second missionary journey before moving into Greece, where he stayed three months. He planned to sail from Greece to Syria, but when he found out about a plot the Jews had planned against him, he went back through Macedonia. There was also opposition from Paul’s fellow countrymen and sidestepping this plot did not mean Paul would not face difficulties.
  • Co-laborers accompanied Paul from the towns of Macedonia and Asia. These co-laborers went ahead of Paul and Luke and waited for them in Troas. Paul and Luke left Philippi after the Passover and reached Troas in five days (instead of the two days it
    took to sail to Philippi the last time). They spent seven days in Troas before moving on.
  • On the first day of the week (Sunday), Paul and his companions assembled to break bread together and hear Paul speak. Paul continued to speak until midnight since he was leaving the next day. The Jews had kept the Sabbath (from dusk on Friday night to dusk on Saturday) as part of the Mosaic Law. The agreement made in the Jerusalem Council did not require Christians to observe the Saturday Sabbath since they were under the New Covenant. Paul never taught those he led to Christ to keep the Sabbath. There is no command in the New Testament about when the church should worship.
  • A young man was sitting in a window listening and fell asleep, possibly because of the fumes from the oil-burning lamps. Eutychus, the young man, fell out of the third-story window and was found dead on the ground. Paul went down and embraced Eutychus’s body and said the boy was still alive. Paul went back upstairs, ate, continued teaching until dawn, and then left. The boy was taken home alive. Paul was able to heal Eutychus because Jesus gave His disciples the command to heal the sick and raise the dead.
  • Some of Paul’s group sailed ahead to Assos to meet Paul, while Paul traveled by land. Paul then sailed with them from Assos to Mitylene, then to Chios, then to Samos, and the next day to Miletus. It feels as though the journey had begun to pick up speed. Paul even decided to bypass Ephesus and Asia because he was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem before Pentecost.
  • While in Miletus, Paul asked the elders in Ephesus to come to him. When they arrived, Paul reminded them of the time he had spent with them and the ministry of evangelism he had shared with them. Paul then told them about what he anticipated would happen in Jerusalem—that the Holy Spirit had told him chains and afflictions waited for him. Paul took this as confirmation of what he had been called to do in testifying to the gospel of Christ.
  • Like Paul, we need to realize that our job is to share the gospel, not to lead people to accept Jesus. Accepting Jesus is up to the individual after they have heard the message of the gospel.
  • Paul told the leaders he would never see them again but that he would remain obedient to God’s call on his life. Paul described his obedience to “the whole plan of God”.
  • Since Paul knew he was moving toward his own death, he warned the elders to be on guard for themselves. He warned the church to guard against false teachers within the church and against opposition from without.
  • Paul committed them to God and reminded them he had asked nothing for support from them. Paul then prayed for them, and they embraced Paul, all weeping at this final departure