Kind: Notes

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Notes for my weekly Bible Study group.
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Overview

  • Paul and Silas traveled through two cities: Amphipolis and Apollonia. Paul was dependent on the Holy Spirit’s prompting to minister and didn’t sense the Spirit moving in Amphipolis and Apollonia so they didn’t stop to minister.
  • When they reached Thessalonica Paul and his partners found women praying to God by the river and shared the gospel with them.
  • Paul met with Jewish leaders for three weeks to discuss scripture.  Paul explained how Jesus (the Messiah) had to suffer and rise from the dead.
  • Paul and his colleagues were staying at Jason’s house. The Jews becames jealous and started looking for Paul, Silas, and Timothy. When they couldn’t find thm they dragged Jason out in front of the mob and yelled at him about what Paul and his friends were doing. The crowd accused Paul and his friends of undermining Caesar’s authority by claiming Jesus was the rightful king. Jason and others are imprisoned until the city officials took “a security bond” (bribe) from Jason and the others, enabling them to be released. This bribe/agreement ensured that Paul would never be allowed back in Thessalonica.
  • Paul and his colleagues moved on from Thessalonica to Berea.  The people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and listened eagerly to Paul’s message.  Many Jews in Thessalonica realized Paul and his colleagues had gone to Berea so they planned to go there and cause trouble for Paul.  The people in Berea that had become believers decide to help Paul and send him to the coast before the troublemakers from Thessalonica could arrive. They later send Silas and Timothy to join Paul on the coast.
  • Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy in Athens. While Paul was waiting for them he was bothered by all the idols he saw in the city. Paul went daily went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there. He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers om Berea. The philosophers were curious about Paul’s preaching and took him to the high council of Berea. Paul told the high council that he noticed an altar with an inscription “To an Unknown God”.  Paul explains that this “unknown” God is the same God he had been talking about. A few members of the high council were interested in Paul’s discussion and became believers in Christ.

Summary

  • In just three short weeks, Paul persuaded people in Thessalonica to follow Jesus. The new believers encountered persecution but they did not allow their persecution to convince them to abandon Jesus. Their perseverance and their modeling after Paul became an example to others in the region, leading even more people to Jesus.
  • Paul reasoned, explained, and showed that Jesus was the Messiah, enablng them to be persuaded to follow Jesus.

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Notes for my weekly Bible Study group.
Resources

Overview

In Acts 16 God uses Lydia so that her whole family can come to faith. Everything thst happens in Acts 16 is because of God’s timing:

  • Paul being prevented from entering Asia because it was more important to go to Macedonia
  • Paul meeting Timothy
  • Paul meeting Lydia who leads her entire household to become followers of Jesus Christ
  • Paul exorcising the slave-girl
  • Paul leading prayer among the prisoners
  • Paul baptizing the prison guard
  • Paul and Silas being set free by the magistrates

Summary

 

  • Paul journeyed to Derbe and Lystra, going north from Jerusalem, and met Timothy, a young man in his late teens or early twenties with a Greek father and Jewish mother. Paul described Timothy as a “true son in the faith”.
  • Timothy becomes Paul’s student and trusted colleague. Timothy eventually takes Silas’s place as Paul’s missionary partner. Paul circumcises Timothy and takes him to meet the Jerusalem Council. Timothy’s circumcision gave him “full access to the synagogues because the Jews thought he hadn’t abandoned his Jewish roots.
  • Paul, Silas, and Timothy continued to travel, sharing the Jerusalem Council’s decisions and strengthening churches in both faith and new converts.
  • Paul’s planned to preach in Asia but the Holy Spirit prevented him from going there and Bithynia (northwest Turkey).
  • Paul was given a vision to preach in Macedonia while he was in Troas (an ancient Greek city near the northern tip of Turkey’s western coast). Macedonia was a province of Greece and located on the mainland. Macedonia was the next step for “taking the Gospel from Asia into Europe.”
  • Paul, Silas, and Timothy then set out for Macedonia. Paul and his companions knew nothing about Macedonia or the city of Philippi but journeyed there anyway under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
  • While in Philippi Paul and his colleagues wanted to pray on the Sabbath. Unfortunately they were unable to find a place to worship because there were no synagogues in the city because there were fewer than ten Jewish men in the city.  Paul and his colleagues went down to the river and spoke with a group of women, including Lydia, a Gentile from Thyatira (an ancient city in Asia). Lydia and her household embraced the gospel and were then baptized.
  • Paul and his companions stayed at Lydia’s house following her baptism.
  • Lydia opened her home to Paul and his colleagues but also to the entire church in Philippi.
  • Paul and Silas meet a slave-girl who can predict the future.  Paul realizes she was possesed by a demon, giving her the power of divination. She was using these powers to earn her owners money through fortune-telling. Paul exorcises the demon, removing this power from her.
  • The slave-girl’s owners were furious and seized Paul and Silas to face the authorities. The slave-girl’s owners complained to the magistrates that Paul and Silas were promoting customs that were illegal for Romans and Jewish people to practice.  The magistrates order Paul and Silas to be stripped, beaten with rods (flogged), and thrown into prison.
  • Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying when an earthquake occurs, shaking the prison’s foundations and causing all of the prison doors to fly open and the prisoner’s chains to fall off. The guard is convinced the prisoners had all escaped and plans to commit suicide. Paul assures him that no one escaped even though they could have easily done so. The guard is so impressed that he accepts Jesus and is baptised. 
  • The next day the magistrates try to set Paul and Silas free but Paul insisted the magistrates come free them on their own instead of sending guards to do so.  The magistrates come and free Paul and Silas. 
  •   Paul and Silas return to Lydia’s house to pray with their brothers and sisters prior to leaving for another town.

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Notes for my weekly Bible Study group.
Resources

Summary

  • In Acts 15, the authority of sharing the gospel comes into question when Gentiles were converted to follow Jesus.
  • A group of men from Judea (known as Judaizers) were teaching that  circumcision was required to be saved. They also wanted Christianity to become a sect of Judaism (they wanted Gentile believers to become Jewish proselytes). Paul and Barnabas are called to meet with other Christian leaders in Jerusalem to discuss making circumcision a requirement for faith in Jesus. This would be like trying to re-stitch the veil in the temple after it had been torn in two. Jesus removed the barriers but the Judaizers wanted to put them back up.
  • A group of Christian leaders (the Jerusalem Council) are identified to decide if circumcision should be required and if Jewish laws should be applied to Christians. The issues are debated until Peter reminds everyone that God called him to deliver the gospel to the Gentiles. God gave Gentlie believers the Holy Spirit. Peter explains how God makes no distinction between Jews and Gentiles and questions why they were trying to put an extra yoke on the Gentile believers.
  • James (Jesus’ half brother) suggests that circumcision shouldn’t be required and proposes variables that they should abstain “from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood.” The Jerusalem Council agrees with James’ proposals.
  • The decision unites the church, preventing it from being split by disagreements.
  • The decision creates a united approach to how the church could witness to the lost.
  • The sharing of the decision blesses the churches and the believers who receive it.
  • The decisions are shared in a letter to Antioch, and the believers there rejoice because of its encouragement.
  • Messengers take the decision back to the brothers in Jerusalem, while Paul and Barnabas, among others, remain in Antioch to continue preaching the message of Christ.
  • Paul and Barnabas plan to return to the places they had previously preached to check on how the new converts are doing. Barnabas wants John Mark to accompany them, but Paul objects because John Mark had left them one time before.  This causes such a disagreement between Barnabas and Paul that they part company. Barnabas takes John Mark to Cyprus while Paul takes Silas to  Syria and Cilicia.