An Aerial View of the New Testament - Part 6

PDF

Well, I don't mind telling you that my commitment to you to cover the Bible in thirteen weeks – six weeks on the Old Testament, one week on the intertestamental period and six weeks on the New Testament – has been one of the greatest challenges of my life; it has been a stretching time for me. I really think – and Sheila and I have talked about this – I think, in some ways, I can synthesize fairly well; I just don't want to in this particular situation. But it's been good for me, and I hope it's been helpful for you. My goal in all of this is to give you context – obviously, we cannot begin to cover what the Old Testament, or in this case, the New Testament teaches in its fullness, and that's not my goal. I'm not going to lead you through each epistle and explain it to you, but I want to give you the overarching historical view of what was transpiring during the times of the New Testament, and give you hooks on which to hang all of the details, as you continue to fill out your knowledge of the scripture. I mentioned earlier Matthew 16 and our Lord's words there to His apostles. He said, "I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it" – in other words, death itself will not stop My church, and certainly, the record of the New Testament is a testimony to that, as is the rest of church history, and that's where we go tonight.

In three and a half years of ministry, our Lord had about 500 committed disciples in the land of Israel – so, how does the church of Jesus Christ grow from that small group of people to become a massive movement that literally sweeps across the Roman Empire? The rest of the story of Jesus Christ is contained in the fifth and last book of history in the New Testament. The gospels are history books, in a sense – accounts of the life of Christ from different perspectives, filling out what we need to know about Him – and the fifth of the history books of the New Testament is the book of Acts. The rest of the New Testament's books, with the exception of Revelation, are a collection of apostolic letters, and most of those letters can be filed into their historical context in the book of Acts, and that's what we're trying to do together. As we go through Acts, I want to show you how the letters of the apostles fold back in to this amazing account of the life of the early church. I have chosen to outline the book of Acts with Acts 1:8 as sort of the structure – there are a number of ways you could do it, but Jesus said you shall be witnesses of Mine in Jerusalem, and that's chapters 1 through 7, and in Judea and Samaria, that's chapters 8 through 12, and to the remotest part of the earth, that's chapters 12 through 28. We began, last time, to look at the apostles as the witnesses of Christ in Jerusalem – this section of Acts, from Acts 2:1 through chapter 7, covers a period of about two to three years of time, roughly from the ascension of Christ in May of 30 A.D. to the conversion of Saul in 32 or 33 A.D. We can't be exactly sure when Saul was converted, but it was in that timeframe, if you put the details of his life together. So, those chapters mark out for us the growth of the church in the city of Jerusalem during those two to three years after Christ ascended, and, of course, they begin at Pentecost, and that's where we left off last time.

I invite you to turn to Acts 2 – I do also encourage you to put on your seat belt, all right? We're going to cover the rest of the New Testament tonight. Now, when you come to Pentecost and Peter's – after the demonstration of speaking in tongues, and we talked about that last time – Peter explains what's happened, and he does it from Joel. He says Joel refers to the last days – those last days started with the first advent of Christ and will end with the second coming of Christ. And he says that part of Joel was fulfilled at Pentecost, the beginning of the last days – the speaking in tongues part, the amazing demonstration of the Spirit. And another part of Joel's prophecy will be fulfilled at the day of the Lord, which is at the end of the last days; that's when those terrible and awesome signs in the heavens will take place. So, that's what Peter is saying about Joel and what's happening there at Pentecost.

But then, he goes immediately from that to give testimony to Jesus Christ – he speaks of Jesus' life; he says, listen, God performed miracles and wonders and signs through Him. He speaks of His death – God delivered Him over to death. He spoke of His resurrection – God raised Him up. And, by the way, you'll notice, by the verses, that that gets the emphasis of Peter's sermon, because all of these people were familiar with Jesus of Nazareth and His life. They were just at the feast prior to this, at Passover, and knew of His death and all of His ministry, so it was important that Peter focus on His resurrection, that God had raised Him up and exalted Him per Psalm 110:1. And the conclusion then, verse 36, Jesus is both Messiah – Jesus of Nazareth is both the appointed Messiah and Lord. Their response, verse 37, is conviction: "when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said … 'Brethren, what shall we do?'" And Peter calls them to repentance – by the way, this is common throughout the book of Acts; I've listed a couple of other references there – repentance was key to the gospel. I've just read, within the last few days, something that someone in our church gave me – Bob Wilkin's newsletter with the Grace Evangelical Society – and he argues that, in fact, repentance is not part of the gospel; it's clear from the earliest days of the church that it was. And then, basically, you have here the great commission from Luke's gospel, "repentance (Jesus said) for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem" – that's exactly what Peter says.

But look at the verse that's often brought into contention, verse 38. "Peter said, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.'" Now, there's so much that could be said here, and we could trace our way through the book of Acts. Unfortunately, this verse is used by those that are called Campbellites – they refer back to a man, by the name of Campbell, who initially taught baptismal regeneration; that is, a person is born again only by and through baptism. A number of the Churches of Christ teach baptismal regeneration; some of them have passed beyond that, but there are many of them that still do. But Peter here is not teaching baptismal regeneration – let me, just briefly, give you the reasons. There are going to be a lot of things on the slides tonight that I won't touch on, but I want them available to you; we'll print them off, and you can have them for the future. But notice the big points – it's not baptismal regeneration, because that ignores the immediate context of Acts. If you look at the rest of Acts, faith is, obviously, what is the component, or the necessary means to, salvation. Also, you look at the analogy of scripture – you can't correctly interpret a passage and it contradict the rest of scripture, and many passages teach us that salvation is by faith alone; we've looked at those through my four and a half years here. When you look at the preposition that's translated "for" – "for the forgiveness of sins," that can also mean "because of," not just "for the purpose of," and I gave you an example from Matthew 12 where that's clear. So, there are a number of reasons that this is not teaching that a person is born again through and by baptism.

Now, notice verse 40 – Peter continued preaching. Lest you think that his messages were short, it says, "And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation!'" And out of this sermon came the first Christian church. Notice the components of that church, that first Christian church – there was a redeemed, identifiable membership. You can argue from Pentecost for church membership; certainly, it wasn't in the same form that it is today, but the idea of connecting yourself to a church, being numbered with a church, was true from the very beginning. They also had very clear priorities – it says, "They were continually devoting themselves," verse 42, to instruction, that is, "the apostles' teaching, to fellowship" (koinonia), to worship at the Lord's Table, "the breaking of bread and to prayer." And chapter 2 gives us our very first progress report in the book of Acts, "praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." So, the church, at Pentecost, was born.

But things do not immediately go well – as they continue to be witnesses for Christ in Jerusalem, the growth of the Jerusalem church occurs amid opposition, and chapters 3-5 begin to show the growth of the church and, at the same time, opposition. And that opposition comes chiefly from the Jewish leadership, from the high priests, from the Sanhedrin, and you can read the accounts of those stories. And on the heels of that opposition comes genuine persecution, not merely to the apostles, but to all the church – persecution and expansion. In Jerusalem, you have Stephen as a key figure. Jerusalem was peopled by two different kinds of Jews – there were those that were Hebraic Jews; that is, those who spoke Aramaic who were part of the land of Israel, and there were Hellenistic Jews; that is, those Jews who had lived somewhere else in the empire or had accepted the influence of the Greek culture; they were Hellenized – you remember that from your history classes. And these found themselves in conflict because their cultures, their living cultures, were so different. So, in chapter 6, verse 1, you find out that, because of those cultural differences, there is some neglect of the Hellenistic widows. And so, as a result of that, you remember, these seven men are identified in chapter 6, and they are put on the mission of caring for these neglected widows – that was the solution. The disciples, the apostles said, we're not going to neglect preaching and prayer; instead, we'll choose these seven men who will care for the serving of the widows. These are probably not deacons, in the formal sense of the pastoral epistles, but they're sort of the beginning concept of deacons, and out of that grows, I think, the office of deacon.

Now, with Stephen's work – one of those seven is a man named Stephen, and with his work comes increasing opposition. Look at chapter 6, verse 8.

And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly induced men…

…they bribed men, basically, to say he has blasphemed. Now, this Synagogue of the Freedmen is interesting – notice it includes some from Cilicia. Now, what's interesting about that is the city of Tarsus, Paul's hometown, was from that region – it's very possible, in fact I think likely, that Saul, who had been brought up in Tarsus, then had been brought into Jerusalem, probably at the age of thirteen to fifteen, went to school under Gamaliel, the great rabbi of the time, the "beauty of the law," as he was called, that – then Paul left, went back to Tarsus, and at some point later, after the death and resurrection of Christ and the ascension of Christ, he came back to Jerusalem. There's no indication Paul ever met Christ, and so, likely, he was out of the area during Jesus' ministry. He comes back – it's unlikely that he would have belonged to any other group; it's very likely that he belonged to this synagogue, and that's why I think he shows up at the very end of this story – he was a part of this synagogue, the Synagogue of the Freedmen.

Now, as a result of all of this, false witnesses accuse Stephen – they say he did two things. They say he spoke against Moses and the Law of God, and he maligned the temple. So, Stephen's speech in chapter 7 answers those charges. If you wonder why he gives so much time to the temple and so much time to Moses and the Law, it's because those were the charges against him, and so, he's answering those charges. He shows utter respect for Moses and the Law while he demonstrates that the nation before whose leaders he stands are guilty of subverting the Law themselves, and he defends himself, regarding the temple, that God doesn't live in man-made structures, and so it is impossible to blaspheme a building. And then he comes to his application. Look at chapter 7, verse 51: "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart (remember the context this morning, your hearts aren't circumcised) and your ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One," and you have become the "betrayers and murderers" of the Righteous One; "you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it." Wow.

The response is swift – they are absolutely sawn in two, literally, is what it says. They begin growling at him through their teeth – they are angry beyond words. And the last straw was when he saw, and reported that he saw, the heavens open and Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, Jesus' favorite name for Himself, at the right hand, standing at the right hand of God, the place of honor – that was too much. Notice verse 57: "they cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse," and they stoned him. And it says, "They went on stoning Stephen (verse 59) as he called on the Lord and said, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!' Falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them!' Having said this, he fell asleep." Did you notice, in verse 56, Jesus is standing at the right hand of God? I don't know, I don't want to make too much of this, but it seems to me that it's interesting because in Hebrews, it says Jesus, as the great High Priest, is sitting at the right hand of God. I'd have to agree, I think, with many commentators who say that here you have Jesus Christ rising to greet the first martyr of the church – he dies in his testimony for the truth about Jesus Christ.

Notice the fallout from all of this – verse 1 of chapter 8. "Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death." Who is Saul? Look back at verse 58: "the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul." I don't think Saul was just keeping their coats – if you go forward to his testimony later in Acts, you discover that he says that I was casting my vote against Stephen. I personally believe that, at this point, it's very possible that Paul – Saul, as he was known then – was a member of the Sanhedrin, or if not, at least a member of some subcommittee responsible for stamping out this new sect, and he casts his vote for the death of Stephen. He "was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day (verse 1 says) a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." It's incredible when you think about it.

Here's part two. Jesus' promise to the disciples takes place two to three years after He told them that second step would take place – first Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and here it is, caused by the death of Stephen and the resulting persecution – this is part two, "You shall be witnesses of mine in Judea and in Samaria." It begins here in chapter 8, verse 1 and runs through chapter 12. This is a period of about thirteen to fourteen years, from Paul's conversion until his missionary journeys, so from about 32/33 A.D. to 47 A.D. At this point, Paul is not going to be a significant part of the history; instead, one of the main actors is another one of the seven, a man named Philip from chapter 6. He ministers at Samaria, and there's a lot of detail given about what happened there, with Simon trying to buy the power of God. Peter and John evangelize Samaria as well in chapter 8, verse 25. And then Philip evangelizes in Ethiopia by the direction of the Spirit of God, and that's a very familiar story to us all. But you can see the gospel begin to ripple out – that's what Luke wants you to see. Just as Jesus had promised, just as He had commanded, He arranges the circumstances in Jerusalem, in Judea, and ultimately in the entire Roman Empire, to cause the gospel to continue its advance.

In chapter 9, we come to the conversion and early ministry of Saul, or Paul, as he later comes to be known – and I'm not going to spend a lot of time here, because when we began Ephesians, I preached the better part of an entire message on Paul, his life, and how he came to be in Jerusalem, and who he was. So, I'm not going to cover all of that here again, but I just want you to see that at this point, interrupting the story is this chief persecutor, is by an act of sovereign grace – and frankly, folks, there is no clearer picture of sovereign grace in all the scripture than Paul on his way a half a mile after a 150 mile journey, finding himself a half mile from the city of Damascus – and Christ shows up, knocks him off his feet and reveals Himself and says, I have chosen you to "bear My name to the Gentiles." After that dramatic conversion, Ananias, you remember, comes to him. You have a picture of the early Christian life of Paul: he preaches there in Damascus, but even as a result, early on, of his preaching, persecution comes – he has to escape dramatically, you remember, be let down from the wall. And then, he goes briefly to Jerusalem, and the church in Jerusalem sends Paul or Saul back to his hometown of Tarsus, and for a period of time, he's out of the picture – we'll talk more about that later. And, as a result of this, as a result of God saving the chief persecutor, several things happen; I want you to see this. By allowing persecution, He scatters the church to do just what He commanded and promised would happen. And then, as soon as they scatter, what does He do? He dramatically, in an act of grace, saves the chief persecutor and look at chapter 9, verse 31: "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase." Incredible. If you'd never read this story before, you would think that can't happen, but Jesus Christ, behind the scenes, is advancing His church.

That brings us to the beginning of the spread of Christianity to the Gentiles – we're still in Judea and Samaria, we haven't left that region, but Christianity, the gospel of Christ, begins to spread to Gentiles, and it does so through Peter. He's ministering in western Palestine, but when you get to chapter 10, you have the account of Peter and a man named Cornelius. He was in the Roman Army, of the Italian cohort, as it was called – he was definitely a Gentile, but he was also a proselyte to Judaism. This is absolutely crucial in the story of Acts; in fact, it takes two and a half chapters to set this story up, and to tell it, in the entire book of Acts – that's because this was monumental. Christianity, here in this story, transitions from Judaism and becomes its own, and it embraces Gentiles. Now, think about it for a moment – if you were in the early church, either as a Jew or a Gentile, you would want to know how it was that what was supposedly a Jewish sect became embraced by Gentiles – I mean, that's something like girls joining the Boy Scouts; it just doesn't fit. How did this happen? And so, here's the story of how it happened. There's a man named Cornelius, a Jewish proselyte, and he prays, he says, God, help me to see the truth – and an angel appears and says, your prayers have been answered (verse 4). "Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter." And he sends two servants and one of his soldiers, who is also a proselyte to Judaism, to Joppa. And God's preparing Peter. You remember the story – Peter falls asleep while he's waiting for a meal to be served; that's probably happened to you from time to time. And there, God gives him this vision, and notice the key point here – when Peter finally gets to Caesarea, he explains what happened to him. Look at verse 28:

He said to them, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me (through the vision he had) that I should not call any man holy or unclean. That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for. So, I ask for what reason you have sent for me."

And, of course, it becomes clear that Cornelius wants to know how it is he can truly know God – and look at the response, verse 34: "Opening his mouth, Peter said: 'I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.'" And he begins to spread the good news of Jesus Christ – this is the turning point for the gospel. It had been primarily Jewish to this point, and certainly through the ministry of the book of Acts, but now it spreads to the Gentiles, and they too receive the Spirit.

Well, you can imagine, when Peter gets back to Jerusalem, he has to account for his actions – the key to his defense comes in chapter 11. Chapter 11 is essentially his defense, but in chapter 11, verse 17, here's the bottom line to Peter: "if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?" He says, listen, God is doing something, and we'd better just get out of the way – this is His business and not ours. And their response to that, verse 18: "When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, 'Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.'" This was huge, a paradigm shift in the life of the early church – we read it, and it seems like old news to us, and obvious, because most of us sitting here are Gentiles. But in the first century, you could not imagine how utterly unlikely this would have seemed until this event; a huge event in the life of the early church.

Now, on the heels of that, still, as they continue in the area of Judea and Samaria, the church in Antioch develops as a Christian base. Antioch, in Syria, was the third largest city in the Roman Empire in the first century. Rome was the first largest, Alexandria was the second and Antioch was the third – a huge enterprising city, and there are a lot of things that we could talk about in terms of why God would have chosen that city, but it had tremendous influence. And so, there the church has a base of operations. And in that church, the evangelization of Greeks begins. Now, here, a new step is taken. You see, Cornelius was a Gentile, yes, but he was a proselyte to Judaism, he had embraced Judaism. Here, apparently, there are Greeks being evangelized who were not proselytes at all; they were just pagans. And it says in verse 21 of chapter 11 that "a large number believed and turned to the Lord." It wasn't just a priest here or a few here or there of Gentiles; now, a "large number" of Gentiles embrace the truth. So, the church in Jerusalem sends Barnabas to check it out, what's going on up there, and he gets there, and he absolutely affirms what's happening and he begins to minister himself, but the ministry keeps growing and growing – and so, Barnabas decides, I can't do it alone; I need a colleague. And Barnabas had already known and met Saul, whom the church had sent up to Tarsus, into his hometown, to minister. And Barnabas, according to verses 25-26, he goes, verse 25 says "he left for Tarsus to look for Saul" – and he plans to bring him back, verse 26: "when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." Now, there are a couple of interesting things in these two verses. You see the expression in verse 25, "to look for Saul?" The Greek verb that's translated "look for" there implies difficulty in finding a person, in the papyri. It was hard to find him in Tarsus – why is that? Well, we don't really know for sure, but I have a conjecture. Remember what Paul said in Philippians 3:8? He said, for Christ, "I have suffered" – what? "The loss of all things." It seems very likely that Saul was utterly disenfranchised, disinherited, disconnected, and so, when Barnabas gets to Tarsus, he has trouble finding him. Now, the other interesting thing here is in verse 26 – it says they "were first called Christians in Antioch." Now, this is important because it indicates a separation, even in unbelievers' minds, of Christianity from Judaism. The church of Jesus Christ and Judaism are distinct; these are not in Judaism, these are Christians, followers of Christ, little Christs. So, this too marks a major shift among this Gentile church.

Chapter 12 is an interesting chapter, because it brings us to Herod Agrippa 1 and the church – and he has a plot; basically, you have the first martyr of an apostle. James is killed, Peter is arrested – he intends to kill him also, but Peter, by a miraculous intervention, escapes. And then you have the story of Herod's death, and under terrible circumstances, you remember.

The people kept crying out (verse 22), "The voice of a god and not of a man!" And immediately an angel of the Lord struck Herod because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.

You have to wonder why this account of Herod is here, and I think the reason comes in verse 24: "But the word of the Lord continued to grow and be multiplied." Political figures may step in to harm the church, to kill its leaders, to arrest its leaders, but God is up for the battle, and the Word of God continues to grow, and to be multiplied. And verse 25 says "Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark," and you have the continued progress of the gospel. Now, at this point in Acts, we have the first New Testament letter written – until this point, there have been no letters written. But James, at this point, writes the first inspired letter. From James, the half-brother of Christ, and written probably in the city of Jerusalem, he writes to those scattered as a result of the persecution in Acts 12; about 44 A.D. is when that occurred. But, because there's no mention of the Jerusalem Council which occurred in 49 A.D., we figure that it occurred between those years, 44 and 49 A.D. – he wrote between Acts 12 and Acts 15. The purpose of James' letter was to show the effects of true saving faith, and to underscore it.

Now, that brings us to part three. Jesus said, "You shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the remotest parts of the earth" – that begins in chapter 13, verse 1 and continues through the end of the book. We don't know much of what happened to Paul from his conversion in about 32/33 A.D. to about 45 A.D., and that was his ministry in Antioch, in Syria, when it began. All we know about those years is recorded in eight verses in Galatians 1 – let me just give you a survey of it. In the years 32-35, he had an early ministry in Damascus, there in Syria, where he had been converted, as well as in Arabia – we don't know how much of these three years were spent in which of those locations, but Galatians 1 tells us about that. The years 35 and 36 A.D., he visited Jerusalem for the first time after his conversion; that's recorded also in Galatians 1. And then 36-45, you have nine years of ministry that are essentially silent, and Paul ministers in Syria and primarily in Cilicia; that is, the region in which his hometown was, the hometown of Tarsus. That's recorded in Galatians 1, as well as in Acts 9.

What happened during those nine years? Well, we don't know a lot, but let me give you three glimpses of what happened during those silent nine years of Paul's life. First of all, we know he planted some churches in Syria and Cilicia, his home region, because Acts 15, when they send the Jerusalem Council letter, they send letters to churches in Cilicia. There had been no record of churches like that before in the book of Acts, and so, the implication is that it's very likely Paul was up there planting churches and ministering in his home region. He was also suffering persecution – 2 Corinthians 11 has this list, remember, this sort of litany of Paul's sufferings. He speaks of frequent imprisonments, but only one of them is mentioned in Acts, the one in Philippi. He speaks of "three times I was beaten with rods," but only one of those is mentioned, and it's the one in Philippi – this was a Roman punishment, and this is the only one that's mentioned in the entire book of Acts. He says three shipwrecks was I a part of, but only one shipwreck is mentioned in Acts, and it occurs after Paul wrote 2 Corinthians, where this list occurred. He says, "five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes" – none of those are recorded in Acts. And so, apparently – and by the way, this last one, five times from the Jews, thirty-nine lashes; these were lashes with a leather whip on a bare back; it was the standard discipline in a synagogue. Acts mentions none of those. What's interesting about all of this is, Acts does imply that his early years of ministry were primarily in synagogues, so it's very possible that these things, or at least some of them, occurred during those silent nine years we know really nothing about. We also know one other thing that happened during those nine years, and that is a vision from heaven – you remember the vision of the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12? He mentions there that it occurred fourteen years before he wrote 2 Corinthians – you do the math, you find him in those silent nine years. So, that's when God allowed him to see heaven itself – that's all we know about those nine years of Paul's life and ministry.

His life and ministry, as we know it, really begins with his missionary journeys. The missionary journeys of Paul occur fifteen to sixteen years after his conversion. Lest you think that immediately he was saved and then was out doing all of those missions, fifteen to sixteen years later come the greatest missions of his life. Before this, he was primarily Jewish in his thrust, but after this, he was primarily Gentile. Now, I'm just going to give you an overview of these missionary journeys. The first missionary journey is recorded in Acts 13 and 14. It's Paul and Barnabas – they go to Cyprus, the island in the Mediterranean, and to southern Asia Minor, essentially equivalent to modern day Turkey. The distances they covered were about 1,200 miles round trip, and this happened in 47-48 A.D. They went from Antioch to Cyprus, they went from there to another Antioch (called Antioch of Pisidia), to Iconium, Lystra and to Derbe. By the way, if you look at that list, the four cities following Cyprus – Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe – those four cities are in a region called Galatia, so I believe that Paul wrote Galatians to those churches. So, the two chapters here, chapters 13 and 14, are the background for the epistle to the Galatians that he will write soon, back to these cities and these churches, where he was ministering and involved. In Lystra, you remember, is where they stoned Paul, left him for dead, and so this trip was not without persecution. Here's sort of a map to give you an idea of what it looked like – you can see the blue represents the outgoing trip and the red the return trip, and the green arrow is John Mark returning to Jerusalem. So, you get a little bit of a feel for where they went on this first missionary journey. They then return, as you can see on the map, to the Syrian Antioch, and make their report.

Now, after the first missionary journey comes Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council – all of Acts 15 is given to it. It occurred in 49 A.D., and there was a huge theological issue at stake – look at chapter 15, verse 1: "Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren (there in Antioch), 'Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.'" They were adding circumcision to faith as a necessary component of salvation – these people are called the Judaizers. That was the issue at stake; there's a lengthy debate about it, and that's recorded for us in verses 6-21, but I like James' summary. Look at the overhead, and you see in chapter 15, verse 19, James says: "Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles." In other words, no, that's not true, they do not have to add circumcision in order to be saved. They come to the right conclusion; they safeguard the gospel – this was a crucial gathering. Do you understand that even Peter himself at one point gave in, you remember, in Galatians 1? You want to know the darkest day in the history of the church? It wasn't the Dark Ages – it was during the life of the apostles, it was when the Judaizers convinced everybody, including Peter, that – Peter went along; he wasn't convinced, but he went along because of peer pressure. And essentially, they all became overtly, ostensibly convinced that you had to add circumcision and the works of the Law to be saved – and only one man stood against it, and that was Paul. The gospel came within a hair's breadth of being lost in the first century; that's why Acts 15 is so important. The church gets together and says, no, wait a minute – this isn't true, this doesn't have to be done. They safeguard the gospel, and they also urge the Gentiles to sacrifice their personal liberty out of love for the Jews. So basically, they say, in consideration of the Jews that are worshipping with you, here's what you Gentile Christians need to do – not for salvation, but as a sort of sacrifice of your liberty to love these people. Don't eat food sacrificed to idols (that was obviously offensive to Jews), and don't commit fornication. Now, that's an odd one to follow right on the heels of "don't eat meat sacrificed to idols" – obviously, fornication is forbidden; this is probably not talking about all forms of fornication. Most commentators agree this is probably a reference to breaches of the Jewish marriage law which forbade marriage between close relatives – read Leviticus 18:6-18. That was a very common practice among the Gentiles, and so, in acknowledgment of the Jewish regulations, the Gentiles were asked. in the churches. not to marry close relatives. Number three, they were not to eat meat from animals that were killed by strangling, and they were not to, probably, drink blood, is the idea here. And the reason for these last two is because of the Levitical sacrifices, and you remember the emphasis on the life of the flesh being in the blood, Leviticus 17? It was so ingrained in the Jews, because of the sacrificial system, that they asked the Gentiles in the churches to abstain from these things, out of love and consideration for the Jews. So, they got the gospel right and they encouraged the sacrifice of personal liberty for the love of others. They sent out a letter to the churches expressing that, and Paul carries the letter back to Antioch.

Now, at this point in the church's history, in the flow of Acts, comes Paul's letter to the Galatians – remember those churches he visited on his first journey? This is his very first letter; it's written shortly after the Jerusalem Council, and it's to the churches in that southern region of Galatia that he founded on that first journey. Apparently, these Judaizers that were a problem in Antioch had spread even there, after leaving the city of Antioch – and the purpose of this letter is to defend justification by faith alone, to attack those who would add even obedience to God in circumcision or anything else, be it baptism or you name it, add anything else to faith as a necessary ingredient to salvation.

That brings us to Paul's second missionary journey – it's recorded for us in Acts 15, beginning in verse 36 through (chapter) 18, verse 22. It's Paul and Silas – you remember Paul and Barnabas had a falling out about John Mark, and so they part ways – Paul and Silas, and Luke joins them at Philippi. The region is Asia Minor and Europe, some 2,800 miles covered in this second missionary journey, and it lasts from 49-52 A.D, and you see a list there of the major cities that are covered. The ones I want you to note, beginning at Philippi, because what you have is God's call to Paul to take the gospel into Macedonia – this marks another one of those crucial shifts in Acts. Paul had intended to go east to Asia, but the Spirit somehow forbids him from doing that and redirected him, through a Macedonian vision, over to Greece – and so, Paul shows up in Philippi. This is a little indication of what that journey looked like – you can see that he was going to head at this point from Troas; he was going to head up into Asia in some way, and the Spirit kept him from doing that, and he heads over into Europe, into Greece. It's incredible to think that many of us have our ancestors in Europe, and it's because of this monumental event recorded in just a few verses in Acts that our legacy is a Christian legacy, rather than an utterly pagan one. The second missionary journey takes him back to south Galatia, to the cities he had visited before, to Macedonia – there in Philippi, Lydia's converted, the Roman jailer. He goes to Thessalonica, Berea and then the major event in Athens which you're familiar with when he goes before the Areopagus there in Athens. And then, he meets Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth in chapter 18, and he spends eighteen months in Corinth. While he's there in Corinth, he writes his next letters, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and they were written about 51-52 A.D. The purpose of 1 Thessalonians was to give instructions for a new church; 2 Thessalonians, corrections about the second coming and the day of the Lord – this was very shortly after his founding this church on this second missionary journey.

The third missionary journey is from Acts 18:23 through 21:16 – it's Paul, apparently Timothy, and Luke joins him at points as well. This covered Asia Minor, Europe and Palestine, and the distances covered 1,600 miles. It was the longest of his missionary journeys, 52-57, because he spent almost three years, as you can see there, in Ephesus. This is an overview of what that trip looked like – very similar, in many respects, to the other trips. Now, again, the green is the outgoing trip, and the red would be the return trip. So, he spends three years there in Ephesus, and while he's in Ephesus, he writes 1 Corinthians from Ephesus in about 55 A.D., during those three years, probably near the end of the three years that he was there – and it was to correct various problems in the Corinthian church that he had founded. But, at the end of his stay in Ephesus, there's a riot – you remember? I've had the chance, Sheila and I had the chance to visit Ephesus and to be in that very theater where they cried out for two hours, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" And that's what happens, and so, because of that, Paul has to leave – he returns then to Macedonia and to Greece. While he's on the return from Macedonia, after he has to be forced out of Ephesus by the riot, he writes 2 Corinthians, possibly from Philippi, and its purpose was to defend his apostleship. He also writes Romans from Corinth in about 56 A.D. to the church in Rome, defending the righteousness from God, true salvation from God, and shortly thereafter, he begins a journey to Rome – it begins in Acts 21 and goes through the end of the chapter. You remember, we talked about this earlier, in 57 A.D. he sails for Jerusalem – he's taken into custody because of the things that happened there at the temple, the near-riot that occurs at the temple. And he's taken up to Caesarea on the coast and he's kept there for two years. And then on from 60-62, Paul's first Roman imprisonment, and those two years of Roman imprisonment end with a verdict from Caesar, to whom he had appealed, of innocent.

So, this is what it looks like, this journey to Rome – you can see that once he was arrested here in Jerusalem, he was taken up to the coast to Caesarea, and then once he appealed to Caesar, he was taken over to Rome. You remember – they get into the cyclone, into the storm, and end up shipwrecked, and eventually they make their way to Rome. So, he heads to Jerusalem, he's arrested there, and he's put on trial in Caesarea. I'm not going to cover all of this, but during those two years in Caesarea, he appeared before several Roman officials – and this is important, because this showed to all those who read Luke's account that Christianity was not antagonistic to the Roman government – and the Roman officials said this. Paul appears before Felix, he appears before Festus, he appeals to Caesar because of that whole event with Festus who didn't have a lot of sense – much like his namesake on Gunsmoke (and those of you who are older get that, those of you who aren't, don't). Paul, before Agrippa – and he has, there before Agrippa, he defends himself with both Festus present and with Agrippa present – and notice their reactions down at the end of this slide. Festus gives his personal opinion; Paul's mad. Agrippa gives his personal opinion; Paul is very persuasive, almost you have persuaded me to become a Christian. But then, together, in spite of their personal opinions of Paul, they mutually agree legally on Paul's innocence and say that he could be released if he had not appealed to Caesar – but of course, that was in God's perfect plan.

And so, Paul continues from Caesarea, through the shipwreck, to Rome at last. And I want you to turn to the last chapter of Acts, because here, Paul arrives at Rome, and I want you to see what happens. Paul has his first meeting with the Roman Jews in verses 17-22, and then in verses 23-29, he has this full day's discussion with them, and at the end of that, some believe, some were not believing, verse 24. They begin leaving – Paul takes one parting shot at them and he says, no wonder Isaiah said, this people "will keep on hearing, but will not understand;" they'll "keep on seeing but will not perceive," and essentially, he quotes that prophecy from Isaiah. Verse 28: "Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen." And then, the whole story ends in verse 30: "And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered." It's not an accident that Acts ends with the word unhindered, because what Luke wants you to see is that the story wasn't over – Paul was in Rome preaching the gospel, presenting the gospel ultimately to Caesar himself, being declared innocent by Caesar, being released, and the story goes on. But, while he was there in Rome, under house arrest for those two years described in those verses I just read, he wrote what are called the prison letters – Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, and Philippians. This was from Rome, during this first imprisonment – Colossians, to show the all-sufficiency of Christ; Philemon, to give a sort of manual on forgiveness to Philemon as he was supposed to receive Onesimus the slave back; Ephesians, to give us the eternal plan of God; and Philippians, to give us a manual on basic Christian living – written to those churches that he loved and had founded on his missionary journeys.

So, what happened after Acts? Let me just give you a brief rundown from the end of Acts to Paul's death. Between 62 and 65, he was released from Roman prison there in Rome, and he returned to a number of cities, including Crete, Nicopolis, Ephesus and possibly Spain – he talked about wanting to go there; we don't have any record that he actually made it, but he may have made it. But throughout Europe, Paul ministered during these years. During these years also, he wrote Titus – we don't know where he wrote it, but he wrote it to Titus, who was serving on the island of Crete, to tell us that we ought to adorn the doctrine of God with our living. He also wrote to his other young son in the faith, Timothy, 1 Timothy – who was ministering, Timothy was there in Ephesus; and basically, 1 Timothy gives us a manual for church life. Paul says, "I want you to know how you ought to conduct yourself in the household of God." During this time, we have another letter written by Peter, from Peter in Rome, using the codename Babylon – he probably wrote it shortly after the city of Rome burned in July of 64 A.D. and the persecution under Nero ratcheted up. He wrote it to Christians in Asia Minor, and it's very appropriate that he wrote on the theme of standing firm through suffering. Paul was eventually imprisoned a second time in the year 65 A.D. for two years, during his second imprisonment, his second Roman imprisonment, it's called – and his final imprisonment would end with his death. He wrote 2 Timothy from him to Timothy while he was in Rome – and Timothy may have been in Ephesus still, we don't know, but he presented ministry as this great spiritual combat. And, 67 A.D., Paul was beheaded outside the city of Rome, as was typical for Roman citizens.

I won't spend a lot of time here, but if you look through the rest of the New Testament history after Paul's death, you have Peter's death shortly thereafter, under Nero. He probably wrote 2 Peter during the days leading up to his death, to the believers scattered across Asia Minor, presenting genuine and false Christianity. Sometime in this period, Hebrews was written from an unknown author – I personally like Apollos as the likely figure – primarily to Jewish believers. There's no mention of the destruction of the temple which would've been something he would want to mention, and he doesn't, so it's probably before that – and it presents the superiority of Christ. Jesus' half-brother Jude writes his letter in this time period, from Jerusalem to Jewish believers scattered from the Jerusalem church through various persecutions – beware the pretenders, is what Jude said, look out for those who aren't the real deal. And then, of course, in 70 A.D. you have the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. And we end New Testament history with John – in the 80's A.D., John wrote his gospel, we've already talked about that. He also wrote 1, 2 and 3 John – he wrote them from Ephesus where he ministered to the churches in Asia Minor, the seven churches that are mentioned probably in Revelation, and the reason for 1 John was to give us tests of eternal life. The reason for 2 John – to talk about hospitality and false teachers, how do you respond to false teachers. And 3 John – hospitality and faithful servants, you ought to care for them. Somewhere in the mid-90's A.D., John the apostle was imprisoned on Patmos, and from that island, he wrote Revelation to the seven churches of Asia Minor, very near the end of the persecution under Domitian, and it was to reveal Jesus Christ.

What I want you to see is that New Testament history ends with the rest of the story – the rest of the story hasn't been written yet. It's Jesus, continuing to build His church, and someday returning to take control of what is rightfully His – that's the rest of the story of the New Testament. Folks, that's what we live for. Do you understand that we live in a period when Jesus Christ is building His church? You're supposed to be part of that; you're supposed to be, as Acts ended, "preaching the gospel, unhinderedly" to those around you. But the real end of the story is yet to come, when Jesus Christ stops the play, drops the curtain and steps in to evaluate all of the actors – and that is still coming. That's the story of Jesus Christ, from beginning to end. Let's pray together.

Our Father, we have covered so much tonight that I'm sure many of the details will be lost, but I pray that You would help the big picture to remain – that our Lord is building His church and that nothing, not even death itself, will overpower it, but through the blood of the martyrs, the seed of the church is sown. Father, help us to see that nothing can stop what Christ has begun, and that someday, as it's recorded in Revelation, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. O Father, I pray that You would help us to live in this time as those who have the mission of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Father, help each of us individually, and help us as a church, to be about the mission of making disciples, of extending the church both around us and around the world for the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.